Ana (Macarena Sanz) has an unusual illness: she begins to disappear. Literally. One of her toes has lost the tip and, as she senses, it is a progressive disease that could be terminal. “I thought this only happened to older people,” she admits to the doctor, who only offers her one piece of advice: change your life. Since the cause is psychological, the only possibility of salvation from it is to modify habits and redefine oneself.
Thus she leaves the artist for whom she worked as creative director in Tokyo, a kind of Iberian Banksy who did not recognize her co-authorship in the works, and returns to Madrid to resume her career as a painter. However, it is not easy for her to recover existential visibility when the world is governed by superficial social rules whose codes she does not fully understand.
The comedian Álvaro Carmona surprised in 2018 as a creator of television fiction with the short format People speaking. There he dissected the present based on everyday dialogues. Now, instead of settling into the more traditional vision of him, in Déjate ver by Atresplayer he delves into the absurd and at times into surrealism to develop a more cynical view towards society and at the same time more empathetic with humanity.
His talent as a comedian is evident when seeing the structure of the script: the episodes are based on a series of conceptual gags, shot without fanfare, on which the rhythm and functioning of the work depends.
Here they come from 'sample brunch' to have material for publications on networks; virtual glasses to fly economy as if you were in first class; foundations to bring unboxing (that is, the action of opening gifts) to disadvantaged people; or hiring an artist to dot the i's on documents that come out of a defective printer because officials refuse to do it without the corresponding bonus.
The approach to comedy is calm, even relaxing, but it never loses its pulse: it leaves the viewer room to laugh but also to reflect on how it reflects their surroundings. Carmona exhibits the essence of today's homo sapiens with the precision of a veteran taxidermist.
Macarena Sanz also builds Ana from the essence that others do not see. On the one hand, she is so discreet that she is mistaken for nondescript; on the other, special because of the brightness of her gaze and the vulnerability of her voice. It is the presence that the work can grasp to be intimate, witty, funny and poignant.
Let yourself be seen is a brilliant metaphor about the zero value given to authenticity in a society that only values the artifice of posturing. Do we exist if we don't receive likes on Instagram?
