De nuevo tú
2002 · 12m · España
Directed by Marco Fettolini
Tones: darkly comic, melancholic
Estranged since Nines stole Marta's boyfriend, the two unemployed friends meet again on their way to a hairdressing-assistant interview and fall into a vicious circle of lies that leads them to defeat.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Two broke women lying their way through a job interview should be a punchline, but Fettolini treats it like tragedy—which is either the most obvious subversion ever or proof that genre labels are meaningless, and honestly I'm still mad about it.
A formally modest piece that recalls the deadpan social observation of Kaurismäki, finding its dignity in the specificity of unemployment and female friendship over slapstick; the restraint is everything.
The rhythm of how the lies compound—each small deception cutting closer to the truth—hinges entirely on the actresses' micro-expressions holding us in that space between comedy and despair, and when it lands, the whole 12 minutes justifies itself.