In his debut feature, Cuban-trained filmmaker Benito Zambrano has crafted a compelling story about the relationship between an estranged mother and daughter, set in his native Andalusia. The mother (played exquisitely by María Galiana) comes to Seville from her rural village to bring her tyrannical husband to a hospital for surgery and installs herself in the apartment of her long-independent daughter (Fernández), an equally ill-tempered alcoholic of unsteady means, who is pregnant by an itinerant trucker. The relationship is strained, but the mother’s gracious ministrations to an old man in the building and her indefatigable attempts to bring hope back into her daughter’s life leave an indelible impression after her departure.