Bella

Nina, a waitress at a New York restaurant, learns she is pregnant and is fired. José, the cook, walks out after her and they spend the day together. José was once a well known footballer; why he stopped opens up slowly across the day. The subject is not the abortion argument but trust built inside a single day. The film stages no scene in which anyone tries to persuade Nina; José simply stays with her and tells her his own past. The form is small and handheld: the subway, the shore, a family house. The long meal sequence is the centre of the film and has almost no cuts. The production was made by a Mexican team on a very small budget and largely independently. It won the Audience Award at the Toronto film festival in 2006, which is what got it a distributor, and it went on to an unexpected commercial success. Eduardo Verástegui, who leads, is also one of the producers. Alejandro Monteverde directs. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet, character-driven independent drama. Who it is not for: anyone who will find the message too plain; the narrative argues a position and does not hide it.