Amador

Marcela, living in Madrid without legal status, takes a job caring for Amador, a bedridden old man, to make some money. A few weeks later Amador dies. Because she needs the money, Marcela hides the death and maintains the impression that he is still alive until his family returns. The film is not interested in the crime. It is interested in the logic of poverty: she is not a bad person, she is without options, and the film shows, without judging her, how this becomes normal one step at a time. Her arrangement with a flower seller keeps the whole thing standing. The form is calm and enclosed: almost entirely one flat, a still camera, pale colours. Fernando León de Aranoa wrote and directed. Since his first film, Familia, he has returned to the theme of performance and keeping up appearances; the work here is far quieter and far more merciless. Magaly Solier plays Marcela; the Peruvian actress was known from Claudia Llosa's films. Who it is for: viewers who like Spanish social realism and films that enter moral grey zones. Who it is not for: anyone expecting movement. The film is nearly without incident and its register is heavy throughout.