Together

Gabino and his partner Luisa – played by Pereda’s repertory collaborators from the theatre troupe Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol – are unsettled by the intrusion of Paco, Gabino’s cousin, into their cramped Mexico City apartment. First, their dog Junto goes missing; then the tap begins to run only boiling water, and the refrigerator breaks down.

Pereda captures both the existential ennui of the young trio—their disaffected drift—and the enervating power dynamics that gradually emerge between them. A tense “What’s for dinner?” sequence hints at the vestige of larger relationship squabbles, while the scalding tap pushes the film toward a literal boiling point. Just as the drama begins to feel hemmed in by domestic friction, Pereda opens it back out onto the pastoral, arriving at a sharp but tender vision of the disorientation of youth, the precarious see-saw of kinship, and the impulse to search for something new together.

Together, dir. Nicolás Pereda, Canada / Mexico 2009, Spanish with English subtitles, 73 min