The great Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) gifts cinemagoers with a captivating, heartbreaking performance in Maryam Touzani’s Spanish-language feature debut, Calle Málaga. The astonishing actress, who was featured in many a Pedro Almodóvar pelicula, is onscreen for most of the near two-hour running time.
Maura plays Maria Angeles, a 74-year-old woman who has spent her life in the close-knit Spanish community of Tangier, Morocco, only to have her daughter, Clara (Marta Etura), arrive from Madrid—after not visiting for over a year—with life-changing news. Clara, desperate for money, is selling the home Maria spent her life in. Clara presents Maria with two choices; go back to Madrid with Clara or move to a government-paid old age home. Maria is understandably devastated, but because the home was placed in Clara’s name, she has no say. And her daughter doesn’t seem to have much empathy, demanding her mother leave the home immediately, since unfurnished homes are easier to sell.
Maria proceeds to watch as all the furniture and possessions she spent a lifetime accumulating are sold to a seemingly uncaring vintage dealer. She, then, moves into the senior home, where she is absolutely miserable, Once her daughter is gone, she returns to her, now empty, house and comes up with an ingenious plan to buy back her furniture, one that that involves the community’s love for…soccer!
Calle Málaga is an exquisite film that treats its lead character with the respect she deserves. Maria’s remarkable journey has her rediscovering intimacy as well as a sense of purpose. The intelligent and touching screenplay, by Touzani and Nabil Ayouch, is never overly sentimental or maudlin. Instead, the filmmakers, along with the transfixing Maura, create an authentic character who will do what she must to hold onto her beloved home.
The film has some keen things to say about the way society (mis)treats the elderly, as if they have an expiration date. And warns of the dangers of trusting that people–even loved ones–will do the right thing when the time comes.
Maria is a true septuagenarian heroine.
Virginie Surdej’s camerawork is to be commended for allowing Maura’s stunning face to do so much of the storytelling.
In a key supporting role, Maria Alfonsa Rosso slyly scene-steals as Maria’s old friend Josefa, a nun who has taken a vow of silence but provides an ear for all of Maria’s woes, thrills and confessions. Her looks of shock are priceless.
Ahmed Boulane has a wonderfully surprising arc as the vintage furniture dealer who turns out to play a major role in Maria’s journey.
My only disappointment occurred in the final moments. I wholly understand the reason the movie ends the way it does, but I was hoping for a denouement befitting the film’s extraordinary protagonist.
Touzani’s 2022 queer-themed feature, The Blue Caftan, was Morocco’s International Feature Oscar submission and made the shortlist. Calle Málaga lists Morocco, France, Spain and Germany as producing countries. Hopefully one of these nations will submit the film to AMPAS, because it certainly merits consideration.
Calle Málaga is mostly in Spanish, and some Arabic—with English subtitles and is part of the Venice Spotlight Series.
https://www.labiennale.org/
