Isaías was a very promising architect. But that was ten years ago. At 40, his life does not smile too much. Work is scarce, nights out are history, taking care of the children is the priority, he has little time left for his partner and, although falling into infidelity is not in his plans, he cannot help but notice Sonia, a mother from school
Are the 40s the worst decade of life? Félix Viscarret raises this question in A not so simple life, a dramatic comedy starring Miki Esparbé and Ana Polvorosa, which will hit Spanish screens tomorrow. “It is an age in which there is an almost physical test that makes you reach the end of the day with your tongue hanging out, without patience and that can cause friction and make you wonder if you have made a mistake with the couple. It is also a test for your ego, because by having children you stop being the protagonist of your life and you become a secondary actor”, says Viscarret, who is also a scriptwriter for the film, in an interview with La Vanguardia during the Festival de Malaga.
The 40s are also that age in which the professional goals that were aspired to in youth have not yet been reached: “You see that the years go by, that the good projects end up in the hands of younger people and, although they do not be real, you can end up thinking that your successes are being taken by someone else.
Viscarret does not hide the fact that the film, which was shot in Bilbao, has something autobiographical, because “they are things I wrote down when my children were little.” It is also an original proposal, because it is presented from the masculine point of view, when it is much more common for cinema or literature to talk about this type of crisis from the perspective of women. However, the director points out that “we are not so different, I like to think that anyone, be they a man or a woman, can see themselves reflected in any of the situations that the film poses.”
And that is precisely the objective of Viscarret: “I would be very excited for people to know or feel that the film is about his life” and to do it without feeling overwhelmed by age or obligations, because surely the 40s are not worst decade of life On the contrary, “the current stage is always the best in a person’s life,” concludes the director of A Not So Simple Life.
