Los supervivientes
1998 · 14m · España
Directed by Domingo Moreno de Carlos
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, family
Tones: contemplative, tender
In the family drama with a social background, Luis is a young man confronted with his father Pepe over questions related to faith and to leading a coherent life; his mother Carmen will try to sow peace between both, and Luis can at least vent with his girlfriend Ainhoa.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A family argument film from 1998 Spain—sounds like the kind of earnest, well-meaning drama that makes other scouts nod politely. But honestly, it's too tidy, too invested in reconciliation through talking. Where's the perversity, the thing that makes you uncomfortable about what these people actually want from each other?
Moreno de Carlos constructs a classical three-way family geometry—father, mother, son—with the girlfriend as a fourth voice, and the film's restraint in not resolving the ideological clash between Luis and Pepe speaks to a maturity about faith and coherence that feels rare in coming-of-age work; the contemplative pacing suggests a director aware of the Spanish dramatic tradition without genuflecting to it.
The throughline here is Carmen's impossible middle position, and whatever choice Moreno de Carlos makes in how she's framed—whether she's centered or always slightly off-camera during the arguments—is what determines if this is just competent family drama or something that actually lands the tenderness it's reaching for.