THE SLEEPWALKERS (LOS SONÁMBULOS) World Cinema

While preparing to spend a reluctant summer holiday at her mother-in-law’s family cottage, Luisa (Érica Rivas) discovers her teenage daughter Ana (Ornella D’elía) sleepwalking naked outside of their apartment. Now in the countryside surrounded by extended family, tensions heighten and Luisa’s concerns for Ana linger while restrained clashes with her husband’s family cause deep-seated problems in her marriage to surface. Meanwhile, Ana attempts to negotiate disconcerting, if not unwelcome, attention from her charismatic older cousin Alejo. Each woman becomes alienated after repeated attempts to connect and be understood and, with surmounting feelings of entrapment, will be pushed beyond complacency. Elegant and contained, Argentine filmmaker Paula Hernández’s bold depiction of the inescapably gendered mother/daughter dynamic brings a remarkable depth to, what is for women, an all-too relatable low hum of despair. –Malin Kan