Some say that we are worth as much as our ideals, but the reality is that they do not stop being a piece of paper until the time comes to put them into practice. In other words: on Twitter we are very good, but it is our contradictions that make us human. And in ‘Suro’ Mikel Gurrea knows very well what he is talking about. Of the modern, the rural, racism, broken love, idealism: in short, the infinite contradictions that turn the lives of their protagonists into a hell in which they have gotten themselves.
The town is not for me
Elena and Iván are two modern city ecologists who, finally, after much talk, They have decided to fulfill their dream of living in a farmhouse in the middle of the countryside, live from the cork oaks and create an eco-sustainable environment to live with their future daughter. Faced with the semi-idyllic return to the town that films such as ‘Alcarràs’, ‘El agua’ or the future ‘Secaderos’ offer us this year, ‘Suro’ comes to remind us that All that glitters is not gold, not even a change of place will solve your most intimate problems.
Despite being Gurrea’s first film, he already has a professional hand: in just two scenes we can see the union between the leading couple, which seems unbreakable. ‘Suro’ proposes a destruction in such slow motion that it takes you a long time to see what is really happening: paradise has turned into hellthe firm personalities in simple outlines of what they were and the ideals in absolute contradictions.
And for this, Gurrea does not waste any of the plans. As if they were cork oak bark, Iván and Elena soon start to drift apart just when they most needed to be together. The script, luckily, is smart enough to let the viewer draw their own conclusions and at no time does it have a moral or a chewed conclusion what to put in your mouth Because in the end, life is a dance. And you choose whether to move or stay to one side smiling.
Don’t run, no, you’re a cork!
Our main couple he knows exactly what he has to do: Neither of them are classist or sexist, much less racist! Quite the contrary: they come from a cooperative and are very aware. The problem is that, precisely to avoid classism, Iván wants to work with the rest of the workers and toxic masculinity breaks through. And with it, other attitudes that no one expects to have within themselves.
‘Suro’ is Machiavellian with its protagonists, who little by little they lose their empathy and their first intentions until they became what they really were during all this time unconsciously. In the end, the couple will not be the same as when the movie began, but at least they will have found their place in the world… even though, deep down, it is not what they expected.
go with the gentleman
The tape lives and revels in details. For example, Iván says that he wants to work like everyone else collecting cork oak bark, not because he is one of the others or because he feels integrated, but to “earn their respect.” From the first minute, the division that is created between bosses and workers dissolves until the end in which they have to take charge of their duties. That is, no matter how much you pretend and want to be “one more”, if you are the one they look for when decisions have to be made, you will never stop having class conflicts.
‘Suro’ navigates between class, race and gender conflicts without specifying it or giving lessons. On the contrary, it shows the face that other films would never dare to show: that, no matter how deeply rooted we are in our own social conscience of the 21st century, it is much easier to believe that we are good people than to simply be.
It is difficult to extract negative details from a film that has gone much more unnoticed than it should, and that culminates with one of the most immeasurable shots of Spanish cinema in recent years. Not only is it a perfect snapshot, but it works as an allegory for the journey of characters who unconsciously deceive themselves. But when they are alone They have removed the disguise that covered themthere is no longer anything that can mask his true self.