Year: 2024

Runtime: 100 minutes

Written and directed by: Yennifer Uribe Alzate

Actors: Alba Liliana Agudelo Posada, Laura Zapata Acevedo, Luis Eduardo Arango Correa, Julián López Gallego

By Sarah Manvel

It’s a globally infuriating reality that when women become mothers they are supposed to devote their entire lives to their children. No longer people, mothers are supposed to be cooks, maids, teachers, nurses and cheerleaders without bodies to call their own or ambitions beyond their children. This is neither true nor possible, but for the most part society really hates it when mothers maintain a sense of self. However, nothing is forever, and “La piel en primavera” is an absolutely wonderful movie about a mother who figures out how to start being herself again.

Sandra (Alba Liliana Agudelo Posada) has started a new job as a mall security guard in Medellín, Colombia, which requires a long commute by bus. It’s a busy route which means she has to stand, and Luciana Riso Soto’s shots of the city from this point of view do an essential job of setting up mood. The job is fine, if dull, but the shopkeepers are friendly and Sandra quickly makes friends with Andrea (Laura Zapata Acevedo), one of the janitors. Andrea has a sideline in selling what my grandmother would have called ‘marital aids’ from a catalog, which makes her understandably popular with the other mall employees. Sandra stands to one side as some of the women in the locker room play with some of the toys, and considers. 

Then one morning on the bus, the driver, whose name is Javier (Luis Eduardo Arango Correa) invites her to join him in the spare seat up front, and they begin a flirtation. Later, when Sandra’s teenage son Julian (Julián López Gallego) sees her getting ready for a date with Javier, he says she looks like a whore. She turns to him in astonishment as he insults her further then storms out. But his rudeness and immaturity doesn’t spoil the date, and suddenly some wonderful things might be about to happen. 

Later Julian apologizes, which Sandra immediately accepts. Going forward he demonstrates a maturity and kindness towards his mother which is the smartest thing about writer-director Yennifer Uribe Alzate’s script. He was a petulant, unfair and unkind brat, and knows it, because Sandra has been a good mom, welcoming to his girlfriend and involved in his schooling. But he’s old enough now he doesn’t need her all the time, so she can start looking around and living a little more for herself, and Julian’s success in getting over himself is just delightful to see. The scenes of Andrea and Sandra smoking weed and dancing in Andrea’s flat are the exciting self-reclamation of women in their middle years that men who shirk their own family responsibilities try to call selfishness. But the selfishness comes later, when on another date Javier does something jaw-dropping. But Sandra knows exactly who is she and what she wants, and while she’ll make excuses for her son, Javier is an adult. 

And it’s this sense of self that’s the main glory of this delightful movie which had its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale. Acts of self-assertion don’t need to be major or earth-shattering. They can be as simple as putting on makeup to go out dancing with your friends, or smoking a cigarette on your balcony without giving a damn who sees. To be able to stand up and tell the world what you think is as important as act of feminism as anything else, and “La piel en primavera” is a great addition to world cinema’s feminist canon.