Pretexts

Pretexts, the defi antly unsexy title of this debut from Catalan thesp Silvia Munt, was chosen because we hang our fragile happiness on pretexts we invent – – most often the search for love. Emotionally perceptive, challenging pic runs two narratives side by side. One, set in a geriatric hospital, brings this abstract idea to dramatic life better than the other one, an unexceptional study of a marriage in crisis.
– JONATHAN HOLLAND, VARIETY

The married couple, Viena, a theatre director, and Daniel, a doctor at a geriatric centre, is in crisis. They love each other, but they cannot stand one another. They both hang on to their respective jobs to fill the impertinent void that accompanies them. Their worlds are antagonistic, their needs, different... Or maybe not: we are all searching for the same thing. This is a story that talks about shared loneliness, imperfect love, unsatisfi ed desires and promises which we do not know how long they will last, but that become a good pretext to live... despite everything else..
– CATALOGUE, FESTIVAL DE MÁLAGA 2008