email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

SAN SEBASTIÁN 2020 New Directors

Review: Ane is Missing

by 

- David Pérez Sañudo displays great cinematic skill, sensitivity and depth in his first full-length feature

Review: Ane is Missing
Patricia López Arnaiz in Ane is Missing

Here at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, the New Directors section is the place to be to find out who we should be watching over the next few years. There are usually a few standout gems to be discovered, and one of this year’s most luminous is Ane is Missing [+see also:
trailer
interview: David Pérez Sañudo
film profile
]
, the début feature from David Pérez Sañudo. After cutting his teeth with some award-winning shorts, Pérez Sañudo, a graduate of ESCAC and Madrid’s University Carlos III, was selected for the second round of La incubadora, ECAM’s flagship mentoring programme.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Ane is Missing is a film of remarkable narrative maturity, a genre-weaving tale probing social, psychological and deeply personal realities. Starring Patricia López Arnáiz (While at War [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alejandro Amenábar
film profile
]
), the film follows a young mother, Lide, who has bigger problems than her job as a security guard for an engineering project that has part of her community up in arms. One day, she gets up to discover that her daughter — the titular Ane — is not in the house, nor has her bed been slept in.

From this moment, Ane becomes a kind of ghost: nobody has seen her, neither the characters nor the viewer, and her absence hangs over the film like a spectral mist. We know her only through the words of others. All the while, the heightened tension in the community seems to magnify the void she has left behind. As Lide turns to her ex-partner Fernando (Mikel Losada), Ane’s father, for help, we begin to realise that she is afraid of this invisible daughter ... but why?

Pérez Sañudo — ably supported by screenwriter Marina Parés Pulido — shifts from mystery to political drama via a portrait of a family crippled by an inability to communicate and show affection. Lide’s search is not only about her daughter, but about finding meaning in her life and some way to bridge the chasm that lies between them.

Ane is Missing is produced by Amania Films, with sales managed by Latido Films. Syldavia Cinema will be distributing the film in Spain.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from Spanish)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy