On the Fringe

Twenty four hours. The bailiffs are coming to Azucena's flat and she has not been able to pay. She is trying to find a lawyer. Rafa works at a law office and handles eviction cases; he takes no fee and runs them through an association. It is his son's birthday today and he made a promise. His phone does not stop. There is a third story: Teodora is about to lose her home over her son's debt and has told nobody. Three stories run through the same day and touch each other. Juan Diego Botto directs; he wrote the screenplay with the journalist and writer Olga Rodríguez. Penélope Cruz plays Azucena and Luis Tosar plays Rafa. It is a Spanish and Belgian co-production. This is Botto's first feature; he is known as an actor. Cruz did not only act in it, she produced it with Álvaro Longoria. The film screened in the Orizzonti section at the 2022 Venice Film Festival and was the only Spanish production at that festival. It was shot in Madrid and Alcorcón. The matter it treats is eviction; the loss of homes in Spain after the crisis is the film's direct subject and the narrative gives it not as statistics but as a single day. The narrative shows the person doing the helping worn down too; Rafa's own family pays for the work. Its limit is method; the narrative uses the shape of a thriller and the emotional pressure is high. Who it is for: viewers who like social drama and Spanish cinema. Who it is not for: the pressure is constant, the three stories are not equal, and the ending is heavy.