'Five little wolves': against the myth of the perfect mother

• Actress Laia Costa: doula, daughter of a taxi driver... and the most successful Spanish actress in international 'indie' cinema

• Palmares 2021 The Berlinale consistently rewards Radu Jude's 'pornographic' satire with the Golden Bear

It was Yasujiro Ozu who, in one of his minimal and minimalist notes, wrote that his intention was none other than to make people feel what life is like without using the elements of drama in any way.

The director of

, in fact, built his filmography from an undisguised suspicion towards any common place, cliché or, more simply, topic.

In his ideology, the tradition was there to argue with her or, given the case, refute her.

is more Basque than Japanese, but in her own way, and without being overwhelming, she is convinced that Ozu's idea is the right one.

And to prove it, she presents

a film that is not only his feature film debut after a long career in short films and in the stormy world of advertising, but is also the first Spanish film of the three that will land at the Berlinale, which began yesterday hand in hand of François Ozon's revision (or domestication) of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's broken and tortured classic

"The world of mothers is usually portrayed in the cinema from that secondary character who is both selfless and completely heroic," says the director to draw the perimeter of her battle.

Indeed, what is seen on the screen is an admirable Laia Costa at arm's length against herself and against each of the predictable gestures that her character is supposed to make.

It tells the story of a new mother.

And there, in that short and simple sentence, she lives the entire film from the first to the last frame.

No drama Ozu would say.

«All the effort», insists Ruiz de Azúa, «consists in anchoring the cinema to the truth.

A movie takes too much time and energy to spend on something you don't care about.

Five Little Wolves is very personal, but not necessarily autobiographical."

And he continues: «We live in a world whose imaginary and global code determined by social networks obeys the only requirement of evasion.

That makes you feel the need to move in the opposite direction and try something very grounded in reality.

The mother we see on screen

she touches to the point of slightly approaching cruelty.

And what is valid for the protagonist in a balance between precariousness, uncertainty and an impossible self-demand, is equally valid for the grandmother embodied by Susi Sánchez who revolts, exactly the same, against each myth applied too lightly to the generation before.

«I have the feeling», continues the director now in the role of observer, «that my generation (I was a mother six years ago) lives in the middle of a storm desperate to find something to tie itself to.

The defined and rigid model of parents is not worth the tolls that especially women have to pay, but in the novelty, between the pandemic and job instability, everything is too much...».

And in the ellipses she leaves an entire movie,

Life without drama.

The tape is programmed in the Panorama section.

It is the first of the three Spanish productions at the Berlinale that recovers attendance.

Then

already in the official section where they will compete for the Golden Bear with usual suspects on the circuit such as

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

• movie theater

CinePauline Chalamet, more than just Timothée's sister

CineJavier Bardem, nominated for an Oscar with Penélope Cruz: "We were hugging each other watching TV and we were shocked"

CineJohn Cena, The Rock and the actors who came out of wrestling: neither method nor hosts

See links of interest

• Last News

• Work calendar 2022

• How to do

• The reading

• Athletic Club - Valencia CF

• Real Madrid - Barca

• Seville - Elche