Dark Blue Almost Black

Jorge is a caretaker in an apartment block. His father had a stroke and he looks after him; the job came from his father and he cannot leave it. At the same time he is studying; he takes a business diploma and wants a better job. He goes to interviews and is not hired. His brother Antonio is in prison. There he meets Paula; she wants a child and is looking for a way to have one in prison. Antonio cannot. He asks his brother for help. Jorge agrees, and two lives become tangled at once. Daniel Sánchez Arévalo writes and directs; it is his first feature. Quim Gutiérrez plays Jorge; Antonio de la Torre, Raúl Arévalo and Marta Etura are in the cast. It is a Spanish production. The film won the Goya for best new director; Quim Gutiérrez was named best new actor. The matter it treats is movement between classes; Jorge takes his diploma and it opens no door. The title refers to the colour of a suit; the right colour to wear to an interview passes through the narrative as a detail. The narrative carries four characters in parallel and judges none of them. The prison sections are a strand of their own and the space works by narrowing. Its ending offers no resolution; the characters stay where they were. Its limit is scale; the narrative is small and the dramatic peak low. Who it is for: viewers who like Spanish cinema and drama on the ground of class. Who it is not for: it is slow, the characters cold, and the ending left open.