Crisálida
2018 · 22m
Directed by Andreu Clar Isern
Genres: drama, fantasy, surrealism
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, surreal
Ana senses something is wrong in her relationship and in herself, and wonders whether her mother has returned from the past or whether she fears becoming that forgotten ghost.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's a ghost story that refuses to clarify whether the ghost is real or psychological, which should be fascinating—but the surrealism feels more decorative than subversive, prettifying a fairly conventional maternal anxiety narrative instead of truly warping it.
Crisálida sits confidently in the lineage of European psychological realism—think Haneke's formal restraint meets Lejman's dreamlogic—and Isern's editing rhythm between Ana's present doubt and the mother's spectral intrusions shows real command of how montage can collapse temporal distance into dread.
The film's entire architecture pivots on a single sustained sound design choice—the way the mother's breathing becomes indistinguishable from Ana's own—and that decision, quiet as it is, transforms a modest 22 minutes into something that lives in your chest.