Ani (Adriana Ozores) lives her widowhood peacefully in her country house. She walks her dog, paints the walls, reads and enjoys everyday life. Her until she falls and breaks her leg. Her daughter, Teresa (María Vázquez) travels from Madrid and moves in with her mother to lend a hand during her recovery.
The girl hires some painters to finish the task that Ani has left half done. The Little Loves, which was screened yesterday at the Malaga Festival and will hit Spanish screens on Friday, is a slow reflection on the relationships between mothers and daughters, a song to the desired solitude and a vindication of intergenerational friendship.
Its director, Celia Rico, and its protagonists, Ozores and Vázquez, talk to La Vanguardia about this film that “talks about living alone, talks about having a mother, talks about having a daughter, the passage of time and also reflects on where to go.” We have been driven by the decisions we have made, what is to come or how we accept the things that happen to us and that were not what we expected,” says the director of The Little Loves.
There is an obvious affection between Ani and Teresa, but it is not expressed through words. Mother and daughter have a lot to say to each other, but they don’t tell each other, because Rico also wanted to “address those conversations that are difficult for us.” “I had the desire to film one of those conversations that are latent, of the words that do not emerge,” adds the director.
But the distance caused by the lack of communication is fading and the two women get closer little by little, in a subtle way. The young painter who works in the house, played by Aimar Vega, will serve as a catalyst for rapprochement to occur and also for mother and daughter to learn to enjoy what life has given them.
“Ani has had her loves, now she is happy with her house, her dog, her walks. Enjoy her loneliness and that is the most important thing, to destigmatize loneliness, because there is still the cliché that people who are alone are unhappy, especially if they are women, and that in many cases is not real,” says Ozores. .
Teresa is also alone. At 42 years old, she is in a relationship with a married man who she knows will not take her anywhere, but “thanks to the friendship she establishes with the painter, she understands that there are many things that are still to come,” adds Vázquez. who has had to “contain herself” to play this slow-paced Teresa after the energy she displayed in Matria, her previous film.
The Little Loves, which competes for the Biznaga de Oro, is a slow and delicious film to learn to value the gifts of everyday life
