María (and Everybody Else)

María was fifteen when her mother died. Since that day she has looked after her father and her siblings, kept the house standing, been the one everyone leans on, and taken pride in it. She is thirty five now. When her father says he has fallen in love with the nurse who looks after him and that they are getting married, the arrangement María has built her life on collapses. Nely Reguera's first feature is about a woman burying the responsibility of building her own life under other people's needs, and it does that without asking for pity. María does not have to be likeable; her need to control is shown as much as her fragility. Bárbara Lennie was nominated for a Goya for the part and Reguera for best new director. The film screened in the New Directors section at San Sebastián.