El Bola

Pablo, who is twelve, is called Bola by his friends. He plays dangerous games on the railway tracks, invites nobody home, and never changes in the locker room until everyone else has left. When he becomes friends with Alfredo, new at school, he sees the difference: in Alfredo's house nobody shouts. In his first film Achero Mañas shows almost none of the violence, only its traces and the system the boy has built to hide it. The hardest part is that the neighbours and relatives know what is happening. Juan José Ballesta plays the boy and had no acting training when he was cast. The film won the Goya for best picture in Spain and pushed child abuse into national discussion. Who it is for: viewers who like realist Spanish cinema and drama seen through a child. Who it is not for: anyone who needs to avoid domestic violence.