Nena
2014 · 12m · España
Directed by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, romance
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
Javier was the first boy who broke Ana's heart; sixteen years later he reappears in her life, and while teenage Ana does not want to open the door, adult Ana must decide what she wants.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone expects the reunion to *mean* something, but Ruiz de Azúa refuses the catharsis—she just lets two versions of the same woman exist in the same room, awkward and unresolved, which is either brilliant or a cop-out depending on your mood.
The film's formal restraint—the way it holds dual timelines in a single frame without melodrama, trusting the viewer to feel the weight of sixteen years in a glance—positions it squarely in the lineage of European intimate cinema, deliberate and unflinching.
The decision to literally split the screen between teenage and adult Ana isn't gimmicky; it's the pivot that makes the whole premise work, forcing us to watch her argue with herself rather than with him, and that one formal choice reframes everything about desire and regret.