Cerdita
2018 · 14m · España
Directed by Carlota Pereda
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, melancholic
Teenager Sara lives with obesity and fears mockery from girls while on holiday in a home village. Even childhood friend Claudia offers no defence when bullies harass Sara before a stranger and steal pool clothes, and a long walk home marks the rest of Sara's life.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone expects the bullying-victim revenge arc or some redemptive catharsis, so Pereda does something rarer—she just lets the cruelty land, permanent and ordinary, which is way more unsettling than any twist could be.
The film's formal restraint—its refusal to sentimentalize Sara's body or grief—places it in careful conversation with the European coming-of-age tradition, where social death is rendered with documentary precision rather than melodrama.
That final walk home is constructed almost entirely through what we *don't* see: the camera stays on Sara's face while the world moves past, and it's that single compositional choice that transforms a familiar setup into something that actually breaks you.