Wow. This one really blew me away. If it doesn’t get a price then I don’t know what’s wrong with the Jury. It’s the second film from the International Competition I see after «Bowling Saturne» and BINGO. But let’s start from the beginning.

Eva is 16. Her mother and father are separated and she and her little sister live with their mother and a cat called Kwesi after a Jamaican poet. Eva’s dad is a kind of poet as well. He used to be in a band and one of his former compañeros introduces Eva to the sexual pleasures. Their sex is a bit clumsy and because of the big age difference you feel awkward watching it but Eva is in full bloom and masturbates a lot.

She and her mom are having a tough time and Eva prefers the company of her dad. She follows him to a literary circle, where he reads one of his poems and she witnesses him getting super drunk, having a fit and also being violent. His inner demons really get the worst out of him and lead him to do things he regrets right away. Eva’s little sister pees herself when she’s afraid or has a nightmare.

Like the title implies, dreams are a recurring topic. Eva’s mother reads all kind of symbolics in her daughters dreams. Eva says she dreamt of flying and apparently such dreams have something to do with sexuality, says her mom. To annoy her she tells her she dreamt the kitchen was on fire and her mom’s hair war burning.

The film is set in Costa Rica’s San Francisco/San José and is a franco-belgian-costa-rican co-production. The direcotr, Valentina Maurel, has made a very powerful film with a strong cast and a great editing. Her juxtaposition of the faces of Eva and her dad mixed with shots of a circus artist turning into a wild gorilla makes the metaphor more visible: In the core, we are all animals.