Hard Times (2005 film)

Hard Times is a 2005 Spanish drama film directed by Manuel Martín Cuenca from a screenplay by Martín Cuenca and Alejandro Hernández which stars Javier Cámara, Nathalie Poza, Eman Xor Oña, and Leonor Watling.

Plot

Set in Madrid, the plot concerns about connected personal stories: those of a former inmate adapting to life out of jail, a NGO worker, and a Cuban immigrant and smuggler of cigars and artwork.

Release

The film was presented at the 53rd San Sebastián International Film Festival in September 2005. It was theatrically released in Spain on 18 November 2005.

Reception

Fionnuala Halligan of ScreenDaily deemed the film to be "nicely-modulated and finely-acted", considering that, despite its "downbeat perspective", Hard Times is a "rewarding and challenging" film.
Javier Ocaña of El País considered that even if, as almost always with choral stories, some of the stories work better than others, the whole is "very well crafted", underpinning a portrait of current-day sorrows "as real as it is pessimistic".