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BERLINALE 2011 Panorama / Spain

De Aranoa takes on life and death in Amador

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Amador [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, the new film by multi-awarded Spanish director Fernando León De Aranoa (Mondays in the Sun [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Princesses) is realistic drama about life and death, sometimes genuinely touching, insightful and with a neat little twist, and although not as strong as his best work Family, it does improve on the dialogue level.

Marcela (Megaly Solier) is a young woman from an unspecified Latin American country, living in a Spanish coastal city with her boyfriend Nelson (Pietro Sibile) who illegally acquires and sells flowers. At the beginning of the film she finds out she’s pregnant, but hides it from everybody, including her down-to-earth, cold boyfriend. In a bad financial situation, she takes on a summer job taking car of old, bed-ridden Amador (Celso Bugallo). The odd pair quickly become friends, sharing thoughts on life and its many aspects through natural, often funny dialogues, with occasional philosophical turns. But Amador suddenly dies, which would leave Marcela without a job, so she does best to hide that too.

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There is a strong social background to the story, which is no news with De Aranoa who explored lives of the unemployed in Mondays in the Sun- and there is another wink at that film: in it Celso Bugallo also played a character called Amador. But in this case, the director goes in a different direction. Instead of focusing on unemployment, he deals with more basic themes of value of life, religion, relationships, and nature of death- and posing a direct philosophical question: when does life really end?

Solier’s face is almost impenetrable for most of the film, except in a couple of more emotional scenes, but the audiences will learn to detect changes in her mood as the story progresses. Bugallo is excellent as the old man, conveying the character with minimalistic means, and Sibile convincingly displays a man who probably does care for his girlfriend, but is taking her for granted.

Produced by Spain’s Reposado Producciones and Mediapro, Amador is handled by Imagina International Sales.

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