Small Lives

Small Lives is a 2010 Spanish drama film directed by and co-written by. Its ensemble cast features Ana Fernández, Roberto Enríquez, Alicia Borrachero, Francisco Boira, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba, and Ángela Molina.

Plot

Bankrupt fashion designer Bárbara Helguera ends up living in a trailer park in the outskirts of Madrid called 'Vista Hermosa', coming across a wide array of characters.

Production

The screenplay was written by Gabriel in tandem with his mother. The film was produced by Alquimia Cinema and El Baile production and it had the participation of TVE.

Release

Small Lives was presented as the closing screening of the main competition slate of the Valladolid International Film Festival on 29 October 2010. Distributed by Emon, it was released theatrically in Spain on 18 March 2011.

Reception

Jonathan Holland of Variety described the film as a "rangy, intimate drama about an array of society's victims living in a trailer park".
Irene Crespo of Cinemanía rated the film 2½ out of 5 stars writing that the good thing "about 'telling nothing' about so many lives, that some of them make it to the end safe and sound".
of La Vanguardia deemed Small Lives to be "a choral and well-structured film" about "a microcosm with a wide range of situations, without falling into weeping melodrama".