It seems that, after years of ignoring the short films, The Spanish film industry has stepped up by financing films based on things that have worked before in short form. ‘Cerdita’, ‘Unicorn Wars’, ‘Mother’ or the current ‘Matria’ are just a few examples of how the same story, in two formats, can grow, change, vary and expand… Or revealing that, after the intensity and soul of the initial project, there was nothing to pull from.
Galician land mine
‘Matria’ is Galician misery porn that happens between collecting mussels, cleaning canneries, trips to Pontevedra and couples with more alcohol than blood. And it would be a simple showcase for pain if it weren’t for the fact that its protagonist is Ramona, as luminous in public as she is dark in private. The film begins and ends with her, and without her charisma, absolutely nothing around her would have the slightest interest. She is the greatest find and, at the same time, punishment of a tape which, like its protagonist, suffers an imprisonment as oppressive as it is, deep down, routine.
Ramona is your friend. During the film Do you want to sit with her, open a bottle of brown liqueur and chat about the miseries of life?, that daughter who doesn’t accept her money, the friend who shows up unannounced and the dog of the man she takes care of. And deep down, this is what Álvaro Gago, its director and screenwriter, tells you in a narrative that in the end it turns history into a mere happening. Instead of setting up an ending, the film just rolls along, like building a tower of pebbles, to an ending that could really have come at any time.
By focusing so much on a character so charismatic and loved by everyone around her, one cannot help but wonder the reason for their sentimental relationship, which at no time do they explain or justify: Ramona is with a drunk and heartless man, she is aware and does nothing to resolve it despite the obvious lack of love between both parties. This strange decision that she never quite came to fruition opens the biggest melon in which the film gets muddy: the director is so in love with his main character that he ignores the personality of everyone else.
the sky is always gray
We never come to understand any character as we do its protagonist. By appearing in all shots and assimilating all the dramatic charge, we only know a few little facts about the people around them, thus preventing us from getting excited about any event that does not affect her personally. Ramona is the only one who doesn’t make it past the sketch, and, in order to fully understand her dramatic arc, we would also need to know something more about your daughter, your friend or your husband.
The positive part is that allows us to admire the work of María Vázquez up close without restrictions or distractions. The actress, who already fascinated in the fabulous series ‘Apagón’ and has participated in marvels of Spanish cinema such as ‘Viaje al cuarto de una madre’ or ‘María (y los otros)’, is capable of modulating her voice to perfection, show all the details of your character’s personality with a single glance, encapsulate everything that doesn’t need to be said in a sad smile. A great injustice will be done if his nomination is ignored in the next Goya Awards.
Definitely, The best thing about ‘Matria’ is that vicious circle of absolute destruction in which its protagonist enters, who sees how his life becomes a black hole of bad luck that destroys everything in its path: work, love, money, family. In the center of the hurricane of an existence as gray as the Galician sky, Ramona tries to maintain a double face to which no one is oblivious: the affability and smile with those around her, the feeling of emptiness inside her. When the strange balance of these two key points in her life falls apart is when, at last, she is forced to make decisions that she had not even considered.
homesickness invades me
Sometimes there is a desire in independent Spanish cinema to believe Ken Loach. And ‘Matria’ is no less: taking over from failed proposals such as ‘En los margínes’, our protagonist will face all the topics she can cover. Economic precariousness, psychological abuse, the care crisis for the elderly, the lack of resources for young people, a future full of doubts: In the end, the burden ends up becoming routine and losing effectiveness. If you want to shoot all the targets, in the end you don’t end up hitting any.
‘Matria’ is the testament of a woman who is alive for not dyingHe smokes even though he knows his lungs aren’t right, he saves for a daughter who doesn’t need it, he caresses someone else’s dog, he flirts with someone who doesn’t want anything. She is the protagonist of her own life, yes, but at the same time she lives on the margins of the book, like an inevitable but secondary presence in the life of everyone around him. And when she finally achieves the importance she deserves, with a visit from her friend, she manages to manage to be, once again, an absent figure.
The worst thing about Gago’s film is that it never resonates as something original: It’s always something we’ve seen before, that we’ve seen in a thousand movies. and that they have portrayed us better and worse. Ramona is an incredible character and her interpretation is worth studying, but outside of her there is nothing. An empty life in which she doesn’t know how to assert herself enough not to be her daughter’s second course, her husband’s dessert, the silent companion who has not succeeded in life. ‘Matria’ hides strength, resistance and truth among its images, yes, but it is not always easy to see it among a sea of calamities that, sadly, end up becoming pure habit.