Cerdita

Greetings again from the darkness. There are bullies. There are those who get bullied. There are bystanders who watch the bullying. There are those who get involved. Writer-director Carlota Martinez-Pereda's 14 minute gem won the Goya for Best Short Fiction Film, and her film is remarkable in its ability to wring out so many emotions so quickly.

Sara (played beautifully by actress Laura Galan) has purposefully chosen off hours for a dip at the local swimming pool. She nervously scans the area as she slowly prepares to enter the water. She is startled by a man surfacing. The two make eye contact as he heads to his parked truck. We viewers see something that Sara doesn't.

Once Sara is in the water, a group of girls, including one she knows, begin to verbally abuse her - calling her names and making fun of her overweight physique. Soon one of them is using the cleaning net to hold Sara's head underwater. The man in the truck watches this unfold. By the time Sara climbs out of the pool, the girls and the man have disappeared, along with her clothes.

As Sara begins the trek on foot, dressed only in her swimsuit, a group of boys in a passing car hurl verbal insults her direction. We never hear a word from Sara, but her facial and physical reactions tell us all we need to know - she's been through this before and shows the pain, anger, and embarrassment. As she progresses on her walk home, she comes across the man in the truck. We are reminded of two sayings: Payback is h**", and Karma is a b****.