何塞·安赫尔·阿拉永，José Alayón (Arona, Spain. 1980) made his directorial debut in 2013 with the feature film Slimane. Since then, he has developed a career as executive producer at the head of his company El Viaje Films, which has produced films including Dead Slow Ahead (Mauro Herce, 2015), Special Jury Prize in Cineasti del Presente at the Locarno Festival, and Blanco en blanco (Théo Court, 2019) Best Director Award and FIPRESCI Prize in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Festival. He was also the director of photography on titles such as the self-same Blanco en Blanco and Eles Transportan a Morte (Samuel M. Delgado, Helena Girón, Ikusmira Berriak, 2017, Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, 2021). La lucha is his second feature film as a director.