Un instante
2017 · 20m · España
Directed by Adrià Guxens
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, romance
Tones: contemplative, tender, whimsical
Hugo is a boy anchored in routine, incapable of looking forward, letting opportunities pass and stagnating in the past. Cosmo, by contrast, is a free soul who lives without looking back. One summer afternoon their gazes cross by chance: it is only an instant, but it will be the birth of a relationship that makes them stop to live in the present for the first time.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A boy-meets-boy summer romance that hits every tender beat you'd expect—which is exactly why it doesn't quite land the subversive punch the premise promises; the film knows what it wants to say about time and presence, but it says it in the most consensus way possible.
Guxens understands the grammar of European coming-of-age cinema, deploying contemplative pacing and soft naturalism with deliberate restraint; the film's formal quietness—its refusal to dramatize—situates it squarely in the lineage of measured indie romance.
The entire film turns on one visual decision: Guxens shoots the boys' pivotal glances through diffused, golden-hour light that makes their eyes nearly imperceptible, forcing us to trust presence over expression—a single cinematographic choice that transforms a gentle premise into something genuinely intimate and specific.