Ausentes (2005)

Director:

Daniel Calparsoro

Writers:

Daniel Calparsoro (writer)
Ray Loriga (writer)

Release Date:

16 September 2005 (Spain)

Genre:

Thriller

Tagline:

Your Worst Nightmare Hides In The Light.

Plot Keywords:

Suburbia

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Ariadna Gil	...	Julia
Jordi Mollà	...	Samuel
Nacho Pérez	...	Félix
Omar Muñoz	...	Luís
Mar Sodupe	...	María
Àlex Brendemühl	...	Jefe de personal
Félix Granado	...	Paramédico

Also Known As:

The Absent (Singapore: English title)

Runtime:

Spain:91 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Certification:

Singapore:M18

Filming Locations:

Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Company:

Estudios Picasso

Movie Connections:

Remade as The Absent (2010)

Well crafted Gender with insight

I recently saw "Ausentes" in DVD and felt compelled to write about it. It is one of those gender movies that hides a sharp comment on modern society. I really enjoyed watching it, I must say that one of the things that stroke me was the photography and the camera work, I find both excellent. The photography by Josep Maria Civit creates an atmosphere that is at the same time realistic and dreamlike. Not to mention how well works the fact that the film plays almost entirely at day time, which for a suspense thriller picture is never the less unusual. Camera work felt great, the way the director uses the movements and the lenses really drives you all the way in to the suspense feeling he is after. But aside from the fact that I think the film es very well crafted, specially if we compare with other Spanish films, what really stroke me about "Ausentes" was the fact that there is a strong message within it. We are watching a gender film that follows the trend started with "Ther Six Sense", nothing too original nowadays, and "Ausentes" does work in its entertaining goals, but there is something else to it. We are actually watching a film about human loneliness, and the precise moment in which one (Ariadna Gil in this case) is faced with it. In "Ausentes" this happens when Julia, wonderfully played by Ariadna Gil, looses her job and moves to the suburbs with her upper middle class husband and two kids. She then falls into a depression in which her own family starts to create a void around her for not being the strong woman they expect her to be. It all plays as a suspense thriller in a very entertaining manner while at the same time Calparsoro is able to transmit without dialogs how thin is the line between clarity and madness. The film takes from "The Shining" and "Repulssion" without failing to be a copy and on the contrary finds a spot of its own that brings memory of those seventies movies in which content and context walk side by side. A must.