Barrio

Three friends try to get through the summer on the outskirts of Madrid. Nobody is going away, none of them has money, and even getting into the centre is a problem. Time passes among a model beach, a jet ski raffle and fantasies built on seeing the sea. Then one of them starts dealing. The subject is not poverty but a summer in which nothing happens also being a story. There are no large events; the boys wander, talk, try things, and every attempt ends in a small humiliation. The narrative advances by accumulating them. The form is dry and realist. Housing blocks, empty lots, the metro. Fernando León de Aranoa uses almost no music and keeps violence out of frame. Its most striking element is a jet ski: one of them wins it in a raffle, and the pointlessness of owning a jet ski in a district with no sea sits quietly across the rest of the film. It won prizes at the Spanish Goyas including best director and best screenplay, and a directing award at San Sebastián. All of the young actors were unknown at the time. Who it is for: viewers who like Spanish social realism and youth drama. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for events; the film deliberately arrives nowhere.