Au Pair
2021 · 20m · España
Directed by David Pérez Sañudo
Tones: darkly comic, whimsical
Nadia travels to Valladolid to teach French to Néstor. There she will be received by Fernando, his father, an eccentric and traditional man who will introduce her into the heart of Castilla. In an alien environment populated by banderillas and bulls' heads, Nadia will do her best to teach the language of Molière to Néstor — or so she believes.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A French au pair trapped in the taxidermied heart of Castilian tradition, except the joke keeps folding back on itself—it's less about subverting expectations than letting them rot in place, which is precisely the kind of tonal perversity most scouts would mistake for confused direction.
Pérez Sañudo constructs a deliberate mise-en-scène of cultural collision through accumulating décor—those bulls' heads aren't accidents—and the film's restraint in not telegraphing its darker turns speaks to a formal sophistication aware of Ealing precedent and European comedy tradition.
The entire film hinges on the decision to keep the camera patient and observational while the absurdity closes in; it's a micro-budget film that trusts silence and framing over plot momentum, letting a single performance—Nadia's polite bewilderment—carry the weight of the whole premise.