Delia Braun (Antonia Zegers) is trying to have a good Christmas and for the most part, she’s succeeding. A Chilean who immigrated to Spain, she lets her in-laws sing Christmas songs while thinking of the empty chair in the room. The chair belongs to her late husband, a loss she and her family still feels. After the holidays, it’s back to reality, working as an Uber driver, the breadwinner in her immediate home. Life, as it does, gets more volatile after her landlord presumably renovicts her, making her look for other places to live. She has to think both for herself and her daughter Ana (Elvira Lara), going to school for audiovisual arts. All of this gives Zegers great work in The Exiles.
The Exiles’ original Spanish title is Los Tortuga, referring to the Spanish country folk who immigrated to the cities during the 1970s. It competently explores that generational trauma while showing the Brauns’ complex economic situation. I already talked about the renoviction situation but because of, presumably, Ana’s father, she also has a stake in an Andalusian olive farm. Within other context some viewers might scoff at all of this and assume she’s fine. But a) not everyone’s a farmer and b) Ana wants to do something else with her life. The film competently ties this aspect with one concerning the Braun’s in laws. The in laws understand Anna’s perspective, again reinfocring that this film understands how empathy manifests through different characters and their real life counterparts.
- Rated: NR
- Genre: Drama
- Release Date: 9/6/2024
- Directed by: Belén Funes
- Starring: Antonia Zegers, Elvira Lara
- Produced by: Alba Bosch-Duran, Sara Gómez
- Written by: Belén Funes, Marçal Cebrian
- Studio: La Claqueta, Oberón Cinematográfica
