Nico and Dani

Two school friends, Dani and Nico, spend the summer at Dani's family house by the sea. The family is away, the house is empty, and they have two weeks. Nico is interested in girls; Dani realises his interest is in Nico. They spend the summer in the same room without saying so. Cesc Gay directs. The source is Jordi Sánchez's play Krámpack, which is also the film's Spanish title. What it does is refuse to treat the situation as a crisis. Dani's position is not built as a secret or a tragedy; the film treats it as an ordinary stage of adolescence and nobody manufactures drama. In 2000 that approach was not usual. The narrative rests on daily detail rather than event: swimming, cigarettes, a house party, the girls next door, meals. The rhythm of a summer holiday is the rhythm of the film. Cesc Gay became a well known figure in Spanish cinema afterwards; this is among his first films and where his manner begins. It screened in Critics' Week at Cannes and won the young critics' prize there. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet stories about adolescence and Spanish independent cinema. Who it is not for: nothing happens and the film reaches no conclusion, and there are almost no adults in it.