Mother (2017)

There’s often an overuse of the telephone to create drama in films, but this short feature uses the intensity of a series of conversations to really good effect. “Elena” (Marta Nieto) and her mum (Blanca Apilánez) are putting away the shopping when she gets a call. It turns out to be her young son, who is on holiday in France with his dad but who has now found himself all alone on the beach. Becoming increasingly frantic, she talks to the lad whilst her mother tag-teams on another phone trying to find the father, calling the police and helping to keep the boy calm as the general level of freneticism rises degree by degree into little short of panic. It all takes place in a large apartment with both characters frequently in shot at the same time, reacting quite differently, and at the end, well… There are two convincing performances for us here, and I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t get any parent sitting slightly less comfortably in their chair as they watch.