10,000 Km

Alex and Sergi live in a small flat in Barcelona. They decide to have a child. The same day Alex is offered an art residency in Los Angeles, perhaps her last chance for a career in photography. They decide to put the plan off for a year. Alex gets on the plane. The film spends its first twenty minutes in a single unbroken take inside the flat; after that it proceeds through video calls, emails and shared screens. The time difference, the internet lag and the accumulating longing eat at the relationship. Carlos Marques-Marcet directs; it is his first feature. Natalia Tena plays Alex and David Verdaguer plays Sergi. It is a Spanish production. The film won the award for best new director at the 29th Goya Awards; Natalia Tena took an award for best actress the same year. It happens almost entirely in two locations: the flat in Barcelona and the apartment in Los Angeles. The narrative uses tools like Skype, email, Google Earth and social media as part of the story. The matter it treats is distance wearing something away; the means of communication are many and the closeness declines. The film does not present sacrificing the career or the relationship as a choice; both decay at once. The narrative feels real time and the screens themselves become the scene. The ending reaches a decision and gives no relief. Its limit is form; the screen based narrative falls into repetition in places and the pace is flat. Who it is for: viewers who like couple drama and relationship films told through technology. Who it is not for: it is formally repetitive, confined in space, and the ending rueful.