The Silent Maid ★★★
DRAMA (2023), 94′
Directed by: Miguel Faus
Starring: Paula Grimaldo, Ariadna Gill
Socially anxious cinema with a modern look from Catalan filmmaker Miguel Faus, in a promising feature debut. Anna (Paula Grimaldo), a young Colombian girl, works as an in-house maid in a wealthy family’s luxurious country villa on the Costa Brava.
On the one hand, the young Colombian girl who works hard and on the other, the children of the family who are only interested in parties and social media.
Her loyalty to her bosses, however, will be shaken when she learns that they have made some false promises regarding her residence permit. At the same time, another domestic worker in the neighborhood reveals to her a charming world of summer pleasures.
Faus places his film almost entirely in the “closed” environment of the villa, where Anna serves from morning to night every desire of her employers. The latter are kind to her, but they always make sure to remind her of her place. This striking – but not only – class difference is the axis around which the entire film moves, effectively presenting two different worlds, intersecting only as much as is necessary for one to be aware of the other’s existence.
On the one hand, the young Colombian girl who works hard to finance her little sister’s studies and on the other, the two children of the family, about her age, absorbed in their image on social media and the daily parties.
Silent scream
Of course Faus does not present all of this in an accusatory or overly schematic manner. His heroine is not made a “saint” nor her wealthy employers demonized; his approach is quiet, almost silent, like the film’s title, preferring to form characteristic images – his shots are exceptional – and then let the viewer draw his own conclusions. On the plus side is the short duration, around an hour and a half, which helps to keep the whole tight, without unnecessary expansions and deviations.
On the other hand, the finale seems somewhat rushed and weak, compared always to similar (great) moviessuch as explosives “Parasites» his Bong Joon-howhich come to mind quite often during this film as well.
2024-07-22 20:58:00