Insomnio
2024 · 26m · España
Directed by Iván López Gálvez
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, surreal
After a fateful accident, Raúl struggles with loss and insomnia. When this begins to take its toll and he starts having visions, Raúl will have to make the decision to leave everything behind or sink with his past.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Insomnio walks the well-worn grief-thriller path without the subversive teeth it needs—the visions feel obligatory, the premise a remix of every tortured-protagonist story we've already seen, and that's exactly why it won't stick with me.
López Gálvez demonstrates formal control in the film's tonal architecture, threading melancholy through surrealism with the kind of disciplined editing that recalls the European arthouse tradition, though the narrative structure itself remains somewhat conventional.
The singular force here is the sound design during Raúl's waking episodes—the way ambient noise fractures and reassembles mirrors his psychological state so precisely that it justifies the entire 26 minutes, elevating a modest budget through pure sonic intention.