Credits: screenplay: Enrique Rivero; director of photography: Arnau Valls Colomer; editor: Javier Ruiz Caldera, Enrique Rivero; music: Alejandro de Icaza; sound: Raul Locatelli; production design: Nohemí Gonzalez; producer: Paola Herrera, Enrique Rivero; production: Una Comunión, Estudios Churubusco Azteca;

Country: Mexico

Year: 2008

Running time: 86

Colour: Colour

Format: 35 mm

An old man stays almost entirely inside the luxurious vacant home of a wealthy woman for whom he is a live-in guard, but whom he has served as a servant for decades with mutual-but solidly class-defined-affection. His world crashes when she decides to sell the place. Enrique Rivero creatively tests the limits of how far a person will go to maintain a comfort zone. Another addition to the resurgence of quality Latin American film, this movie from Mexico is minimalism at its most effective, and ultimately shocks the blasé viewer when it steps into thriller territory. (H. F.)