Mari Gil

It’s indescribably beautiful, but devastatingly sad and anxiety producing. Definitely not for kids. They’ll be traumatized. And not for many adults, either. It’s filled will PTSD-producing, life-threatening scenes. I found it almost unbearable to watch. But the beautiful visuals, Oscar award and hype kept me in my seat, though I really should have left.

Beautifully written, acted and produced Spanish film about a brilliant 17-year-old boy of very few words and zero friends in the gorgeous northern region of Cantabria who keeps getting into trouble w the authorities for doing the things that seem plainly logical for him to take care of his beloved grandmother during her final days in a home. When back yet again in court and the same sympathetic but stumped judge asks him why he’s in court again, he replies, “I don’t know; my grandma, was cold, so I got her a heater,” he states plainly. Neither the authorities nor his fed-up, problem-laden, hard-drinking brother understand his logic and behavior (he seems to be on the autism spectrum), and the boy ends up in juvie. Key to the film is the complicated, painful chasm between the boy, his brother, and the grandmother, who raised them and, inexplicably (and hysterically funny), can use the single gibberish word she can still utter to make herself understood to the boy, who then “translates” for his exasperated brother! Enter a dog named “Oveja” (yes, Sheep), multiple escapes from Juvie, chases, captures, deep yet funny conversations and this film takes us through a unexpectedly fascinating, sad, funny, ultimately very fulfilling tour of the complicated insides, foibles, and fears of anyone who is human.