‘Let no one sleep’, the ‘Taxi Driver’ cañí in a Madrid suburb where hope is running out

2023-11-16 23:49:30

Martin Scorsese portrayed the mood of an entire country through a taxi driver. His Travis Bickle was not just a psychopath, but the perfect metaphor for a society traumatized by the wounds of the Vietnam War. A city, New York, immersed in terror and paranoia, in institutionalized and promoted violence that exploded at any moment. Every city and every moment has its own Taxi Driver and his own Travis Bickle. The Madrid of 2023 has a woman named Lucía, to which Malena Alterio gives face and body in the surprising let no one sleepthe latest film by Antonio Méndez Esparza who, after winning the Cassavettes award at the Independent Spirit Awards with Life and nothing more In 2018, he takes a turn with his biggest and most different film.

This taxi driver Cañí lives on the outskirts of Madrid, and the land of dreams and freedom they sell is not for her. She would like to sing opera, eat in fashionable Japanese restaurants, have an affair with an actor and be like the theater director she picks up in her car one day (played by Aitana Sánchez-Gijón). And she tries hard. With too much desire. So many that reality mixes with fiction. So much so that she confuses Usera with her desired Asian world and so much so that she begins to distort everything. In the background, on her car radio, businessmen who scam citizens, unemployment, and a city that only a few can enjoy, those who have money.