I’ve been pondering the title of this film by Valentina Maurel, as it has a resonance once the closing credits rolled that I hadn’t really considered at the start.

This is a story about mothers and daughters, and it feels like there is some commentary there about neglectful mothers, and daughters who struggle to come to terms with who they are within their family.

Elsa (Daniela Marín Navarro) has returned to Costa Rica due to some minor documentation she needs to continue her degree in Belgium. She is the conscientious and successful daughter, making a life for herself in Europe. Her sister Amelia, on the other hand, seems to be the younger child that is constantly at odds with her family.

She is living in her family home, but has changed the locks, refuses to answer the door, and has invited the ragtag group of dodgy looking blokes to live with her. They breed pitbulls and so the house is full of men, dogs and drugs.

At first glance, Amalia (Mariangel Montero) seems to be someone who needs to pull her life together. Their mother Isabel (Marina de Tavira), was a successful writer in the past and is busy with the excitement of having one of her early books re-issued. She needs space for herself and seems to have washed her hands of worrying about either daughter.

As Elsa spends her time running around town trying to fix Amalia, we slowly become aware that her life perhaps is not as on track as she would like everyone to believe. There is a very subtle reference about midway through the film that I thought indicated some secret that Elsa was hiding, but this was not something that was ever made apparent.

Amalia can see spirits, one reason why Elsa thinks she’s ridiculous and crazy. It’s possible, that Amalia has a mental illness that is going untreated, that’s what it seems like at the start, but as we get to know her better it’s quite possible that she has a keener understanding of the world and herself than Elsa does.

I’m not really sure where it ends, or what we should take from this. Amalia‘s experience reminded me of Jake in Sweet Milk Lake, just wanting his family to accept him and love him for who he is. You get the feeling that beneath Amalia‘s brash exterior there is a child who just wants someone to understand her.