A lesbian couple move to the country to deal with terminal illness in this tense, sensitive film by Chilean director José Luis Torres Leiva
Chilean film-maker José Luis Torres Leiva’s new drama is a thoughtful treatment of terminal illness. It gets under the skin and into the thoughts of two women: a couple, and one of them is dying of
cancer. Torres Leiva wrote the script after losing three
Friends to the illness. His film is anti-sentimental, a tough watch, as they say; the kind that can leave you feeling a little fragile. But it’s sensitive, too, and beautifully acted.
Ana (Amparo Noguera) and María (Julieta Figueroa) are in their 40s. The film opens with the two of them in a car. María in the passenger seat gently instructs driver Ana to close her eyes, and for a tense moment Ana drives blind, scared. Afterwards, we discover that María has terminal cancer. What was she doing in that moment in the car? Giving Ana a glimmer of her own terror of the darkness?