LA PLAGA (The plague)
Direction:Neus Ballús
El Kinògraf and Televisió de Catalunya
OV in Catalan and Spanish with English subtitles
Documentary
85 min.
Synopsis:
Raul, a farmer who tries to grow organic food, hires Iurie to help him in the fields. Iure is a Moldavian wrestling fighter, who has to work at whatever it takes in order to earn a living. Slowly, their personal histories overlap with those of three solitary women: Maria, an elder who has to leave the country house where she has always lived to join a retirement home; Rose, a nurse from Philippines who has just arrived in the country; and Maribel, a prostitute who has fewer and fewer clients. The destinies of all these characters become entwined as the summer goes on.
The Plague is a film of interwoven stories, that offers a moving portrait of life in the outskirts of Barcelona. The main characters are not actors. They play as themselves after four years of working with the director. This long process has permitted Ballús to reveal the uncertainty and the rebel spirit that underlies contemporary crisis-hit Spain.