To the comforting and well-deserved success that screenwriter and director Carla Simón continues to achieve with Alcarràs, her second feature film, another production by a native director must very probably be added. In this case, it is about Alauda Ruiz de Azúa (Barakaldo, 1978), award-winning author of short films who has won six awards at the recent Malaga Festival with her debut feature Cinco lobitos. It is a feature film that should not go unnoticed in these times of information overload that logically fades in seconds.

Arguably, she starts from personally lived experiences, because as she herself has explained: "I was the mother of a child five years ago and motherhood changed many things in my life, including the way I saw my parents." And she clarifies that “more than an idyllic event, motherhood seemed like a meteorite that devastated everything and caused family relationships to never be the same again. My family had become another."

The protagonist, Amaia (Laia Costa, who by the way started filming a year after becoming a mother), is in her thirties who has just given birth to her first child. Everything around her seems to get complicated. Life as a couple with Javi (Mikel Bustamante) gets complicated when the latter, due to a new employment contract, must travel to another city to do his job.

Amaia feels more and more alone and decides to go live for some time with her parents, Koldo (Ramón Barea) and Begoña (Susi Sánchez), who initially welcome the arrival of their daughter and baby. But nothing is ever what it seems and never-healed wounds are reopened. For Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, "it is essential to take care of our loved and vulnerable ones." For her, "taking care of a mother, when she was always the one who took care of you, is a journey in reverse, which has something of reconciliation and finding yourself from another place".

The director takes maximum care of the emotional balance of the story, narrated with direct images and without tricks that dramatize the authenticity of this story based on realities that are sometimes avoided. The contribution of the cast is also essential. It is worth highlighting the conviction expressed by the aforementioned Laia Costa, the veteran Susi Sánchez and -of course- the always remarkable Ramón Barea.

Direction and script: Alauda Ruiz de Azúa

Cast: Laia Costa, Susi Sánchez, Ramón Barea, Lorena López, Mikel Bustamante

Production: Spain, 2022. Family drama

Score: ***