Flowers

Ane is a woman in her forties, and one day a bouquet of flowers arrives at her house with no name on it. The next Thursday another comes. She does not know who is sending them; her husband Ander does not either, and he starts to be jealous. After a while the same flowers enter another woman's life. Three women circle around the same man without knowing each other, and that man is no longer there. Directed together by Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga, the film takes grief through the rituals of remembrance: who has the right to mourn, who gets onto the list of those left behind, and how an unofficial bond is commemorated. The narrative is quiet and explains nothing. The film was shot in Basque. It competed at the San Sebastián Film Festival in 2014 and was submitted as Spain's Oscar entry, the first Basque-language film sent to the category. Who it's for: Viewers who like Basque and Spanish cinema, narratives about grief, and quiet drama. Who it's not for: The pace is very slow and the plot is thin. The characters' inner lives are also deliberately left closed.