The Red Squirrel

About to kill himself, Jota witnesses a woman crash her motorbike on the shore. She has lost her memory. He tells her he is her boyfriend, invents a name for her, and the two set off camping. The longer the lie lasts, the closer her real past comes. Julio Medem wrote and directed. Emma Suarez plays the woman, Nancho Novo plays Jota. The idea is that identity can be invented: someone without memory accepts existing inside a story told by another person. Medem builds it with the tools of genre; the film begins like romantic comedy, moves into thriller and then into nightmare. The red squirrel is the name of the campsite and the film's recurring visual mark. It screened at Cannes and brought Medem into international circulation; in Spain it was considered one of the most original works of the nineties. The story does not worry about gaps in logic and proceeds by dream reasoning. Who it is for: viewers who like Spanish auteur cinema and thrillers built on identity. Who it is not for: anyone wanting explanation; the film leaves most questions unanswered.