Vidas
2022 · 15m · España
Directed by Nacho Ros
Genres: biography, documentary, drama
Tones: contemplative, tender
A homage to the work of many researchers who have laboured in the shadows seeking a personalized cure for each patient, inspired by the life of Dr. Antonio Pérez, paediatrician and childhood cancer researcher.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A hagiography wrapped in documentary language—competent enough, but it's treading exactly where you'd expect it to, and the result feels more like a well-meaning tribute than anything that questions its own reverence.
Ros constructs a formal meditation on invisible labor and legacy through careful juxtaposition of archival material and intimate portraiture, situating the personal biography within a larger documentary tradition that honors both subject and form.
The film's restraint is its strength—there's a specific choice to let silence and static composition carry the weight of decades of research, which transforms what could've been saccharine into something genuinely moving through sheer compositional discipline.