This May 20, ‘Cinco lobitos’ arrives in our cinemas, which could already be seen at the Berlin Film Festival and triumphed in style at the Malaga Festival, where the first feature film by Alauda Ruiz de Azua was made with the Biznaga de Oro.
‘Five wolves’ starts shortly after the birth of the daughter of Amaya. The arrival of a baby is not an easy situation, but Amaia finds herself increasingly overwhelmed when she realizes that there are many things about caring for a baby that are out of her hands, and even more so when trying to balance it with her career. she. When Javiher partner, must be absent more and more from home for work, Amaia decides to return to her parents’ house in a small town in the Basque Country to at least have the help of her parents.
homecoming
Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s film it’s a family portrait from start to finish, full of everyday scenes that surround you very naturally. From the first moment you enter the game of the dynamics of each character and ‘Five Little Wolves’ allows you to simply witness this story of another family that you could surely know.
Trying to escape the chaos and loneliness, Amaia returns to her childhood home seeking refuge and her parents, only to find herself in a situation that was not as idyllic as she expected. Because parents, starting with herself, before becoming parents are also people with their own dramas and her own problems. And the children, although they are adults and have their lives formed on their own, they never stop being children.
Through the eyes of Amaia, Ruíz de Azúa explores family dynamics, and how children carry some of their parents’ traumas to a certain extent, and how they are not completely the people we think they are.. And not because they are bad people behind our backs, but because there are many secrets that need to be kept and things that we never get to know.
‘Cinco lobitos’ has a very small main cast, with the nucleus of Amaia’s family made up of Laia Costa (‘Victory’), Susan Sanchez (‘Sunday’s Illness’), Ramon Barea (‘Rose’s Wedding’) and Mikel Bustamante (‘Mayabel’). At the Malaga Film Festival, Ruiz de Azúa not only took home the Golden Biznaga for Best Spanish Film, he also won Best Screenplay and Laia Costa and Susi Sánchez shared the award for Best Actress.
And with good reason, because both are the common thread of the entire film and they eat up the screen at all times with a chemistry and naturalness that perfectly shows the dynamics of the relationships between mothers and daughters.
‘Five Little Wolves’ is a very intimate portrait of motherhood and child rearingbut also what it means to become a mother showing what is given up and what is gained with special attention to the supposed conciliation.
Because not everything is pretty and we also have a very important point of criticism, showing that eThe care of the children and also of the parents ends up falling so many times on the women (mothers and daughters) as a responsibility too assumed and naturalized. And all this at the cost of losing their health and having to give up a professional life in order to be able to take on the tasks of care and upbringing.
Men can continue with their careers or not know where things are at home, but for women it is a duty because otherwise the whole world will come crashing down… And these are situations that happen in a way that is too normalized and so little to little that you hardly realize.
‘Cinco lobitos’ has its moments of drama, but it also makes you smile more than once with how well the entire cast works together and by showing you everyday situations with which you empathize perfectly. It is first of all an honest story throughout, showing a portrait of motherhood with its good and bad things to get away from the idyllic idea of a perfect mother.
Because being a mother is difficult, now and also 35 years ago.