17 minutos con Nora
2021 · 18m · España
Directed by Imanol Ruiz de Lara
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, family
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
Nora, nervous about performing in her school play and bullied by classmates, faces something more important — being accepted by her father — in seventeen minutes that will change their relationship forever.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone expects the school-play anxiety plot to resolve with a triumphant performance, so of course Ruiz de Lara sidesteps it entirely—the real stake is the father's acceptance, which is both more intimate and weirder than the consensus setup promises.
A formally restrained approach to the coming-of-age family drama that respects the lineage of Pialat and Haneke; the film's control over what it reveals mirrors the protagonist's own measured emotional architecture.
The seventeen-minute constraint isn't gimmick—it's the entire film's skeleton, forcing every beat to earn its place, and Ruiz de Lara's willingness to let silences and small physical moments carry the father-daughter negotiation makes the thinness of budget invisible.