Only the first feature of Marcelo Martinessi, this is an assured exploration of a difficult and contemporary topic.

Okay, I napped a bit in this film. It’s dark and quiet and slow, not a good combination when it’s your second film of the day and the cinema has couches.

This is perhaps the first film from Paraguay I have ever watched. Chela (Ana Brun) and Chiquita (Margarita Irun) have been a couple for 30 years. We enter their story as Chiquita is about to go to prison for a debt that is being alarmingly defined as fraud. She is the pragmatic one in the relationship and she worries at Chela’s ability to cope with every day responsibilities.

It’s not spelled out but the title gives us the clue that they are women who come from wealthy and respected families. The debt that Chiquita has incurred indicates financial strife that has forced them to sell off their inheritance – dinner sets, crystal glassware, art and antique furniture. It’s shameful and Chela at least seems ill-equipped to live without privilege.

This is a film when not a lot happens and we are kept claustrophobically close to the characters, forced like them to confront uncomfortable realities. For Chela, it is a precarious thing. We can see that she expects to be pampered and protected – the re-occurring motif of the tea tray beautifully shows this.

When Chela agrees to drive a friend to a social appointment, she finds a usefulness that leads to friendship and the chance to be daring. When Chela meets Angy (Ana Ivanova), she is confronted by the choices she has made abd the life she could have lived.

I know little about Paraguay but this seems to comment on the stifling structure of the class system. It’s a story of women – there’s barely a man in it – and how they are co-conspirators in a system that both cossets and limits them.