Bichos raros
2007 · 11m · España
Directed by Alegría Collantes, Estíbaliz Burgaleta
Genres: comedy, coming-of-age
Tones: contemplative, whimsical
Three oddballs — José Luis of the 'siniestro' urban tribe, Raúl a video-game freak and Eva a fervent astrology adept — live in a hostile 'normal' ecosystem, each choosing a different way to live their life.
Picked by Felix
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Three misfits living by their own incompatible codes — video games, astrology, urban subcultural identity — in a world that demands conformity, and the film doesn't resolve them or make them palatable, just lets them *be*. This is the kind of premise that sounds slight until you realize it's actually a sly rejection of every coming-of-age arc that requires the weirdo to learn how to fit in.
Collantes and Burgaleta situate themselves deliberately in the Spanish indie vernacular of the mid-2000s—the whimsy recalls Jeunet's tone-play, but the restraint and refusal of sentimentality grounds it in a more austere European tradition. The editing rhythm respects the texture of small lives rather than imposing narrative momentum.
The film's entire emotional weight lives in the decision to treat each character's chosen escape with equal seriousness and visual poetry—no mockery, no hierarchy—so that a shot of José Luis in his 'siniestro' pose carries the same weight as Raúl alone with his screen, which is the whole point.