Tú y yo
Oriol Estrada & Natalia Cabral
Dominican Republic | 2014 | 86 min
World premiere
Language : Spanish
Subtitles : English, French
A white, wealthy and elderly widow and Aridia, a young black maid, live together in a house filled with orchids in the center of Santo Domingo. Aridia cleans and cooks, the lady gardens, and when the work rhythm is a bit slower, they can share some gossip. But sometimes, the atmosphere gets tense. Madam wakes up grumpy and she blames Aridia reminding her mercilessly “where she belongs”.
A white, wealthy and elderly widow and Aridia, a young black maid, live together in a house filled with orchids in the center of Santo Domingo. Aridia cleans and cooks, the lady gardens, and when the work rhythm is a bit slower, they can share some gossip. But sometimes, the atmosphere gets tense. Madam wakes up grumpy, she blames Aridia and when Aridia tries to defend herself, she reminds her mercilessly “where she belongs”. After a while this constant quarrelling takes its toll and Aridia leaves the house. Without the maid the hours drag away excruciatingly slowly. Not even the beloved soap operas have the same taste as they used to when Aridia was around. Oriol Estrada and Natalia Cabral have managed to direct a claustrophobic chamber massacre piece that recalls a Fassbinderian exercise in domination and submission. Like a Douglas Sirk melodrama that mirrors class and race struggle, two lonely women join forces because the world refuses them. Still, they cannot help but replicate on a smaller scale the oppression they endure themselves. A geometrical and observational melodrama.
Giona A. Nazzaro
Trailer
