Yul
1998 · 21m · España
Directed by Rodrigo Cortés
Genres: comedy, coming-of-age, drama
Tones: absurdist, contemplative, darkly comic
Yul is a misfit, a well-built brain with bad aim, a foolish character whose genetic deficiencies have been fantastically cultivated by an extremely obsessive mother.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A genetic comedy-drama about maternal obsession and physical inadequacy that refuses to sentimentalize either the misfit or his enabler—Cortés makes something genuinely perverse out of what could've been a tired coming-of-age blueprint, and most festivals would've passed on it.
Cortés demonstrates formal control in balancing tonal registers—the darkly comic and contemplative sit in precise equilibrium—while positioning the film within a lineage of European character studies that treat pathology with neither pity nor cynicism.
The entire film hinges on a single tonal choice: playing the mother's obsession completely straight, no winking, which transforms what could be broad farce into something genuinely unsettling and human.