Wilson
2020 · 15m · España
Directed by Pau Rodilla, David Gaspar
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A homage to our elders that also gives visibility to Alzheimer's disease, which some 800,000 Spaniards suffer today, in a story that draws the viewer in towards a heart-squeezing ending.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
It's a well-intentioned Alzheimer's drama that does exactly what you'd expect it to do—squeeze your heart in all the predictable places. Passes the tissues test, but I'm waiting for someone to make me say 'wait, WHAT?' about memory loss.
The film sits comfortably in the lineage of intimate family portraiture and disease-awareness cinema, with evident care in its pacing and tonal restraint—though it doesn't quite disturb the established conventions of the form.
What makes this work is the filmmakers' decision to let silence and small gestures carry the weight instead of explaining the relationship; there's a specificity in how they frame Wilson's presence (or absence) in the frame that transforms a familiar subject into something quietly devastating.