Second Round
2012 · 16m · España
Directed by Dani Zarandieta
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
The friendship between Leo, Fred and Abby was broken by a violent incident that marked them forever, and Abby believes she has a solution to the guilt that has stalled their lives.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
The premise promises transgression—a 'solution' to shared guilt that sounds like it's heading somewhere genuinely fucked—but the film plays it safer than its dark setup deserves, landing more in familiar trauma-bonding territory than genuine subversion.
Zarandieta constructs a precisely calibrated chamber piece about complicity and absolution, where the formal restraint of the frame mirrors the characters' emotional paralysis; this is the kind of morally ambiguous resolution that lingers precisely because it refuses easy catharsis.
The film hinges entirely on whether you believe Abby's proposal is redemptive or delusional, and Zarandieta nails it through a single sustained take that holds all three actors in uncomfortable proximity—the lack of cutting becomes the statement.