Perdóname
2018 · 8m · España
Directed by Jorge Cabanes
Genres: drama
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
Hugo seeks forgiveness from Leyre after leaving her paralysed in a car accident on a night when he had been drinking; alone together in the mountains, the two express their feelings.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's a sincere two-hander about guilt and forgiveness in the mountains—exactly the kind of well-intentioned drama that makes most festivals nod politely and move on. Nothing here resists; everything confirms what we already believe redemption should look like.
Cabanes constructs this encounter with real formal discipline—the mountain setting and confined intimacy recall a lineage of Spanish intimate dramas, and the restraint in his direction allows the dialogue and performance to carry the weight of trauma and reconciliation without sentiment collapsing into melodrama.
The real lift here is the decision to hold the camera still and let the two actors' micro-expressions do the negotiating—there's a moment where Leyre's face shifts from hardness to something else entirely, and that single choice reframes the entire power dynamic of asking for forgiveness.