Solos
2010 · 5m · España
Directed by OK Felipe Vara de Rey
Genres: drama, family, thriller
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tense
A father, a son, and a grandson each grieve the same woman, who was wife, mother, and grandmother to them. Their shared mourning leads to an unexpected ending.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Three men soloing their grief sounds like a Hallmark premise, but Vara de Rey subverts the expected catharsis—the "unexpected ending" suggests this isn't about closure, which is genuinely perverse for a film about mourning.
A formally disciplined study in how cinema can hold multiple registers of loss simultaneously; the triptych structure recalls both essay film tradition and classical narrative, executed with the kind of restraint that demands close attention.
The architecture here—three parallel griefs converging—hinges on a single editing or sound decision that either fractures the emotional register or seals it; that pivot is where a five-minute sketch becomes something that breathes.