Felipe Degregori studied film in Moscow in the 1970s. Upon returning to Peru, he directed several short films before making his feature film debut with "Abisa a los compañeros" (Warn the Comrades), his first feature film, shot in 1979 and released in January 1980. The film was an adaptation of the book "Abisa a los compañeros, pronto" (Warn the Comrades Soon) by Guillermo Thorndike, who also wrote the screenplay. Both the book and the film recreate a true event that occurred in 1963, when a group of Trotskyist militants planned and carried out a bank robbery in Miraflores to finance their political activities. The film was a great success with audiences upon its release and sparked considerable controversy in the press at the time.