WE WON'T KILL EACH OTHER WITH GUNS - FILM FESTIVAL
Elena Martin - Elena wth.a sad secret
The Spanish are measurably, provenly internationally the happiest people in the world. Certainly the reunion scenes at the start of this film are joyous ; five young friends embrace in full Mediterranean mode, laughter intimacy love are all in the air. But so is sadness. They are all from a small coastal rural town in Valencia, but this is not the stuff of travel brochures. The countryside is in decline. The community heads up a protest against the closure of the only factory with a fiesta in the evening
Blanca, (a moving turn from Ingrid Garcia) a cool blonde recently returned from years in London. Tim her boyfriend is on the phone continually as he tries to talk to her. She is clearly heartbroken and has organised the reunion party in the house of the central figure - someone we never see except in flashback - the lovely Paula . It is the anniversary of her death, worse than that, her death by suicide.
Blanca makes a paella in the courtyard as the other friends tip up. Glamorous Elena reputed to be rich( Elena Martin gives a brilliant performance as a woman with an uncomfortable secret her own ruin), Then there is the restless Miguel, Joe Manjón takes this leading role, a struggling writer who’s just won a prize for his first novel, and there’s the heavily pregnant Marina a fantastic rendition of a desperate woman on the edge of giving birth) . Carlos Troya as Sigrido a super handsome sexually conflicted character, is last to arrive - in a chicken costume. Was this a flight of whimsy, a joke or just a laugh? We find out the sad truth at the film’s end.
No, the group do not kill each other with guns as in the title, but they do assault each other with mordant details of hidden secrets revealed and reproaches that sting. Inevitably the urn of ashes crashes to the ground.( a radiant Paula Munoz gives us fictional Paula from the happier past as filmed on video)
The film ends with the full of gaiety of a Spanish Fiesta - for the traumatised friends it’s a time for sexual abandon of the most graphic style. The flamboyance of friendship and the delight of dance merge into a wonderful celebration. - destined to be a night of drama for the five as they plunge into a kind of resolution through hot passionate sex with unexpected partners. But the past hurts are not so easily sloughed off. And whilst there is resolution for some, the bitter reality is all too apparent for these not-so-young any more gorgeous people , without jobs, short of money and facing a new future far from the rural life of their parents, away from home .
Hilarious at times, moving, sexy insightful, 85 minutes of wonderfully crafted human insight.
Directed by Maria Ripolian adaptation of Víctor Sánchez’s stage play Nosaltres no ens matarem amb pistoles –
