Arón Piper raises his voice about the reality of housing in 'Hugo 24': "The cruelest thing is that more than 50% of the salary goes to your roof"

The actor Arón Piper returns to the big screen with Hugo 24, the new film directed by Luc Knowles that will arrive in cinemas this Friday May 15. The film, co-starring Marco Cáceres, Marta Etura and Greta Fernández, premiered at the Málaga Festival 2026, addresses problems such as housing, youth precariousness, abuse and the fear of abandonment through the story of a young man who has only 24 hours to avoid being evicted.

“'Hugo 24' talks about friendship, the leap to maturity, housing, abuse… I am delighted to give voice to so many social problems”, assures Arón Piper about a film that portrays the life of Hugo, a boy from the Tetuán neighborhood who carries a complicated family situation while trying to survive emotionally and economically. During the promotion of the film, the actor has reflected on the housing crisis that especially affects his generation and has left a phrase that has generated great repercussion: “The cruelest thing is that you live to work and more than 50% of your salary goes to your roof”. 

The actor also delves into the psychology of his character and highlights that Hugo's great conflict is “the fear of abandonment”. “Everyone has left him and that has made him create certain barriers that increasingly separate him from the world”, explains Piper, who defines the protagonist as a young man still “inocent” forced to mature suddenly.

The actor, known for series like Élite, explained that part of the story connects with personal experiences of both his own and Marco Cáceres. Both arrived in Madrid very young to study acting and went through periods of precariousness trying to get ahead. “We spent seasons seeing how we paid the rent”, recalled Piper. For his part, Marco Cáceres emphasizes that the film reflects a reality that fully affects many young Spaniards. “Becoming independent is almost a luxury due to the difference between salaries and housing prices”, laments the actor. The director Luc Knowles adds that the story was born precisely after observing how many residents of Tetuán were forced to leave the neighborhood due to the increase in rental prices.

The film uses the countdown to a possible eviction to portray problems such as housing, friendship, fear of abandonment, or social pressure. Piper also criticized the success discourses that dominate social media and that push many young people to think that “if you are not a millionaire before a certain age you are a failure” and defended the importance of “small dreams” in the face of that obsession with money and luxury.