The filmmaker Neus Ballús makes an acute portrait of a society full of prejudices in ‘Six days current’, merging reality and fiction in a film that has been awarded at major festivals
Last weekend the curious ‘Holy Spirit’ was premiered, filmed with non-professional actors, while this Friday ‘Six ordinary days’ enters the billboard, a mixture of reality and fiction that is supported by real characters, three plumbers and electricians who they play themselves on the outskirts of Barcelona. For a week, the days referred to in the film’s title, a worker of Moroccan origin is put to the test to replace a veteran plumber who is retiring in the small business. The feat is not easy, since the collision with the other partner who remains is continuous, determined not to exceed the period under examination for non-professional reasons.
The succession of everyday scenes, which Pepe Gotera and Otilio sophisticated, are amusing, despite offering a stark portrait. The cinematographic tone is pleasant, apparently, because what its director tells in a comedy key invites reflection and at times shudders, pointing out the amount of prejudice that plagues our society and the different social roles that comprise it. Third film by Neus Ballús (‘The plague’) with a script of his harvest with Margarita Melgar, a pseudonym behind which Montse Ganges and Ana Sanz-Magallón are.
“I feel the need to film what I see now and here, around me”, defends Ballús, whose father is a plumber, which is why he has collected elements of reality to reflect all kinds of stories he has always heard at home. Singular situations, prejudices, problems and conflicts of all kinds. ‘Six ordinary days’, shot with instinct and photogenic, endearing and insightful, comes after three years of intense work with real people. Excerpts from his life every day make up a film that refers to a current world where people of disparate origins and ethnicities coexist with different points of view when facing their existence.
The director Neus Ballús, who debuted with ‘La plaga’ (2013).
The understanding between human beings is the basis of the proposal, with Barcelona, a multicultural city, as the setting. Moha, Valero and Pep, hired by a small plumbing company, are the protagonists. The first two -Mohamed Mellali and Valero Escolar- were placed in front of a camera for the first time and have already received the award for the best male performance ex aequo at the Locarno Film Festival (in addition to the Europa Cinemas Label award and a special mention from the jury independent young man). Its naturalness is a hit, revealing some politically incorrect thoughts.
Also selected at the BFI London Film Festival, after passing through Toronto and SEMINCI -Silver Spike and Audience Award-, ‘Six days of current’ can be understood as an atypical comedy, with several layers of reading. The spectator’s smile can freeze, since humor softens the racism and power games that surround the protagonists. Ballús imagines and collects bits of reality to point out other worlds that are in it, real settings that sometimes we are unaware or consciously hide, because they do not enter our modeled reality. There are those who have cited the television program ‘The infiltrated boss’ as a funny reference, but where there is manipulation of the script and a debatable sensitivity in pursuit of the show, there are some exalted moments and a lot of truth, although it weighs on our consciences and “let’s take some laughs. The message is clear.
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