Matar a la madre
2022 · 19m · España
Directed by Omar Ayuso
Tones: contemplative, melancholic
An enigmatic meeting between an elegant, magnetic older woman, Dorita, and an attractive young man, Noa, in a castizo calamari-sandwich establishment on a rainy day in Madrid: a conversation about guilt, past and motherhood.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Two people talking about motherhood and guilt in a Madrid dive bar sounds like every other festival therapy session, except Ayuso refuses to resolve anything or even tell you what actually happened—which is either maddening restraint or the kind of formal provocation that makes you mad you can't look away.
Ayuso constructs a conversation piece with the precision of Haneke and the atmospheric patience of Kiarostami, letting the calamari establishment itself become a character in a film that trusts editing rhythm and tonal control to carry the weight of unspoken history between two strangers.
The entire film pivots on Ayuso's decision to shoot Dorita's face in close-up while keeping Noa slightly out of focus during her confession—a single compositional choice that makes you trust one person's memory over another's, which is the whole architecture of the film.