Family

Santiago wakes up and finds the house prepared for his birthday: his wife, his children, his mother-in-law, all of them there. Then we understand that none of them is his family. He has hired a cast of actors for the day, and everybody's role is under contract. The film is not interested in the trick of loneliness. It is interested in when the performance will break: the actors start slipping out of character, one asks for extra money, another is genuinely hurt. Santiago fires anyone who departs from the script. The form is built on one day in one house and is close to theatre. The camera moves between rooms and never tells the audience which part is performance and which is real. It is Fernando León de Aranoa's first feature. It won the audience award at Valladolid and the Goya for Best New Director the following year. He would later be known for social films in the line of Mondays in the Sun. Juan Luis Galiardo plays Santiago, with Amparo Muñoz and a young Elena Anaya in the cast. Who it is for: viewers who like Spanish films built on a single idea and the theme of role-play. Who it is not for: anyone who wants the idea taken all the way. The film repeats itself in places and its emotional payoff is rushed at the end.