Ctrl + Z
2021 · 5m · España
Directed by José Miguel Sánchez Bueno
Genres: comedy, fantasy, romance
Tones: absurdist, contemplative, whimsical
Toni is a photographer who discovers the true power of Ctrl+Z while editing a photo; he will use that power to try to improve his relationship with Carla, with thousands of opportunities to get it right.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The Ctrl+Z conceit is clever enough, but it folds into a fairly conventional romance arc—Toni gets infinite mulligans and learns to accept imperfection, real profound stuff. It's the kind of high-concept premise that exhausts itself in the first minute, leaving five more to coast on whimsy.
Sánchez Bueno demonstrates real formal control in how he structures the repetitions and escalations, positioning the film in a lineage with *Groundhog Day* and *Palm Springs*—though the execution feels more like a stylish sketch than a complete meditation on time, regret, and choice.
The decision to keep the undo mechanic *visual and tactile*—showing Toni's fingers on the keyboard, the photo literally reverting frame by frame—transforms what could've been a gimmick into something intimate and earned; it's that one grounded detail that makes the magical system feel like it matters.