Acabo de tener un sueño
2014 · 7m · España
Directed by Javi Navarro
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, surreal, tender
Irene is eight years old and has just woken from a horrible dream, a nightmare, in which she becomes a girl of another race, in another reality, full of difficulties and problems.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The premise *sounds* like well-meaning liberal guilt wrapped in fantasy, but Navarro actually refuses the easy catharsis—there's no waking-up revelation, just a kid grappling with something her eight-year-old brain can't quite metabolize, which is way more uncomfortable and honest than the setup promises.
A quietly formal exploration of childhood consciousness that positions itself thoughtfully within the magical-realist tradition of Spanish cinema; the restraint in not explaining the dream's logic is where the film's true craft lives.
The decision to shoot the dream sequences in a slightly desaturated, almost fever-dream visual register while keeping Irene's waking moments grounded sells the entire emotional weight—it's a single technical choice that transforms what could've been heavy-handed into something genuinely disorienting and tender.