Madrid, 1987

José Sacristán and María Valverde shine in David Trueba’s intelligent, witty, and sensual new film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim. On a hot summer day in a vacant Madrid during a period of social and political transition in Spain, Miguel, a feared and respected journalist, sets up a meeting in a café with Ángela, a young journalism student. He takes her to a friend’s studio. His intentions are clearly sexual; hers are less clear. Chance events force them together for more time than they would have chosen, locked in a bathroom, naked, without the possibility of escape. Removed from the outside world, the pair, who represents polarized generations, is pitted in an unevenly matched duel involving age, intellect, ambition and experience. The political and social context of the period provides the background to the power shifts that continually take place between them over twenty-four hours.