In the most recent Málaga Film Festival’s ZonaZine section (which champions alternative and independent works), four awards (the Silver Biznaga for Best Spanish Film, Best Actress, Best Actor and the Audience Award) were bestowed upon Join Me for Breakfast [+leggi anche:
intervista: Iván Morales
scheda film], the directorial feature debut by acting teacher and actor (whom we have seen in series of the likes of La Academia [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda series] and in films such as Sunday’s Illness [+leggi anche:
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trailer
intervista: Ramón Salazar
scheda film], among others) Iván Morales, which hits Spanish screens on 13 June, distributed by Filmax.

Based on the stage play of the same name, written by the filmmaker himself, this comedy-drama is divided into four chapters, each focusing on one of the main characters. The first one follows the injured Natalia (played by Anna Alarcón, who won an award at Málaga, and who has appeared in Mamífera [+leggi anche:
recensione
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intervista: Liliana Torres
scheda film] and the series The New Years [+leggi anche:
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scheda series]), a waitress by night and an amateur filmmaker by day, who is filming a Pasolini-style documentary about heartbreak. The second revolves around Salva (Iván Massagué, also rewarded at the very same festival, and glimpsed in The Platform [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
scheda film] and the recent series The Gardener), a nurse with a murky past who finds himself in hospital with an old friend, Natalia, with whom he rekindles a formerly severed connection. The third tracks Omar (Álvaro Cervantes, as bankable and relatable as he was in the recent title Deaf [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Eva Libertad
scheda film]), who had a previously successful life as a producer and who has retrained as a composer of music for adverts. And the fourth zooms in on Carlota (played by Marina Salas, a thesp who shone bright recently in Myocardium [+leggi anche:
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intervista: José Manuel Carrasco
scheda film] and También esto pasará), an unstable girl who lives with Salva but who is infatuated with Omar.

And so, lives intertwine as these wounded creatures roam around in search of one another, find each other and grow apart. Life itself is captured from the point of view of these increasingly fluid modern-day relationships. The difficulty of committing and the pain of lovelessness hang over the hearts of these disorientated men and women. And Morales takes it upon himself to follow them, understand them and lay them bare emotionally, along with their flaws, manias and ideals, making it impossible for us not to empathise with at least one of them.

The exceedingly skilled actors and actresses, the screenplay with believable dialogue and the use of a different cinematic gaze (altering the format of the framing and the camera movements) for each character (depending on the state of mind and the psyche of each one) all make Join Me for Breakfast a filmic mirror in which it’s easy to see our own reflection, as we all have something in common with at least one of its characters. It’s only the slightly hurried and forced ending that disrupts the smooth flow of this touching, heartfelt and sincere movie, which does not shy away from laughter and tears – or discussing the healthy right to be wrong, to flee or to accept one’s mistakes – when indulging in something as human as having breakfast in good company.

Join Me for Breakfast is a Distinto Films, Dos Soles Media, WKND, Tartar Films and Medina Vilalta & Partners production. Its international sales are overseen by Filmax International Sales.