LOVE WINS

LOS DESTELLOS

2024 / 101 min / color

Isabel (a poignant performance by San Sebastián festival award-winner Patricia López Arnaiz) sees her life turned upside down when she’s asked to start visiting Ramón, her ailing, estranged husband, by her daughter. Isabel and Ramón have been living apart for fifteen years, so despite their shared past she treats him as a stranger. She isn’t happy to reopen a chapter of her life that she closed so long ago, and it turns out there are still a lot of unresolved issues between them, causing bitterness and frustration. But spending time with the seriously ill man gradually changes Isabel’s attitude. Resentment is slowly replaced by empathy, and indifference turns into concern for a loved one, even though she hasn’t thought of Ramón that way in years. The circumstances allow the protagonists to look at their shared past from a slightly different perspective; it’s time for her to reconcile with her former partner and say goodbye to him in peace. Spanish director Pilar Palomero creates an extremely subtle portrait of human solidarity and humanity. In her work, she relies on sincerity and formal restraint. With great sensitivity, she depicts moments of sadness interwoven with glimmers of joy, relating what once was, what is, and what will be.

• San Sebastián IFF – Best Leading Performance (Patricia López Amaìz)