I knew absolutely nothing about this movie before I saw it. I only saw it because I just returned from a trip to Spain's Basque country (which I loved) and a "Basque Film Festival" was playing in my New York neighborhood. I thought this movie was terrific. At first, I thought it was going to be yet another whine about poor misunderstood and underappreciated women that the New York "non-profit" theatre has turned into a cliché. How can the poor put-upon thing handle all the stress? But, as it turned out, that's not what the movie ended up being. A young woman with a promising career has just had her first child by a man to whom she is not married. He has a promising career, too. The couple are happy, but she already feels the stress of trying to balance a relationship, a career, and a new baby all at the same time when her mate receives a lucrative job offer in another city. He thinks they can make it work, but she doesn't want him to take the job. But he does. The baby cries incessantly, despite her giving it constant attention. She goes to a coastal town to get some emotional support from her parents, but that turns out to be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire, as a load of new responsibilities tumbles down upon her unexpectedly. I can't tell more without giving away key plot points, but let's just say that it would be a challenging position for anyone to handle.

Cast and direction are excellent, with especially fine performances from Lala Costa as the new mother and Susi Sanchez as HER mother. Both ladies give Oscar-worthy performances. This movie has a lot to say about strength of character, where it comes from, and how it works. If you want car chases and explosions, look elsewhere. This is not that kind of movie. But if you're looking for an intelligent and sensitive film about what it is to be human in today's world, pounce.

Alauda Ruiz de Azua shows how a woman's life is affected by her newborn while she deals with her absent boyfriend and her mother's illness. Amaia (Laia Costa), finds herself aboslutely overwhelmed when she discovers that being a mother isn't as easy as she thought, and on top of that her child's father Javier (Mikel Bustamante) doesn't feel any preasure at all and leaves her alone. Something we later find out that happened to Amaia's mother as well when she was younger.

Finally, Amaia decides to move to her parents' house in a small town in Euskadi, where we see the usual dynamics of a couple that has no love for each other, Begoña (Susi Sánchez) and Koldo (Ramón Barea) have been married for many years but they can't stand each other.

As Begoña gets more and more ill, Amaia takes her place in the house and slowly becomes her mother, starts to see her father the way her mother does and gets angry at him. This transformation is remarkable and above all, completely realistic.

From all characters Begoña is definetely the most interesting, she's got a strong character, stubborn, sometimes bad-tempered and always subtle. As she said about her husband, «When I first met your father, he was a really quiet boy, and so I thought "How interesting!", but then it turned out that he was't able to say a thing in thirty years»

Neddless to say the excellent job carrying out a film with an actual real baby in it, an important detail that gives credibility and makes the crying and so more believable.

Another detail that is very impressive is Begoña's state trhough her illness: her hair, posture, way of walking, mood, among other aspects, truly shows the reality of a sick person like her that has changed her life from one day to the other, from being an independent woman that made her day-to-day life by herself, to be "someone to take care of".

An important thing that the film tells us is that motherhood takes sacrifice, specially when your husband doesn't care much. We constantly see how Amaia turns down job opportunities because of her situation, reconciliation of work and family life is one of the main topics. When her baby and her mother need her, she is the one to put her job aside to help.

There are a couple scenes I particularly loved, the first one happens in the kitchen when Amaia feels overwhelmed and her mother says "Look at me, I would change myself for you right now without thinking. All those lives that you don't live are always perfect, they are ideal. But at some point, you have to live the life that has been given to you".

And the second one happens at night, when Amaia hears her mother woke up and goes to help her. That hallway, the hug, the crying, picturing your hole life and looking at the very moment you're at, with the person that has cared the most about you.

Simply soulful. I thank Alauda for this wonderful film, and I urge everyone who loves her mother to watch this.