THE LIGHTER SIDE

One Careful Owner

El Inconveniente

BERNABE RICO
Spain, 2020
94 minutes, Color
Official website

A comedy set in Seville pits two selfish women of different generations against each other in that city's overheated housing market. As she nears the end of her life, Lola Cruz (veteran actress Kiti Mánver, familiar to Pedro Almódovar fans) negotiates the sale of her apartment to a buyer willing to wait to take possession until Lola passes. The buyer, Sara Palacios (Juana Acosta), being a life insurance executive, is no stranger to monetizing death nor waiting for it, so the arrangement works for a while. But hard-drinking, pot-smoking Lola defies the actuaries; she just won't die, putting Sara's planned renovations—to her palacio, to her life—on hold. Rich in witty dialogue, Bernabé Rico's debut feature is an adaptation of a stage play that takes a hammer to the fourth wall with its lively direction. Especially enjoyable are Carlos Areces's Jacques Tati-like comic turns woven throughout.—Judy Bloch

The film won the Audience Award at the Málaga Film Festival

In Spanish with English subtitles