OBSERVER: Calle Malaga
Veteran Spanish actress Carmen Maura stars in Calle Málaga, a strange, sweet story about a widow, Maria Angeles. Maria lives on Calle Málaga, Tangiers, a rich melting pot of people and food.
Maria spends her days browsing the street stalls, talking to the vendors eager to show her what is fresh and in season.
Once home, she cooks up a feast in her small but well-equipped kitchen while singing along to Latin jazz.
She has lived in Tangiers all her life, having moved from Spain with her parents to escape the Francoist dictatorship.
She loves to chat with her oldest friend, Sister Josefa (María Alfonsa Rosso), a Carmelite nun, regaling her with tales, knowing she can’t reciprocate due to her vow of silence.
Maria enjoys her life and the liveliness of the street, that is, until her daughter Clara (Marta Etura) arrives with a proposition. Clara, a divorced nurse with two young children, is struggling to make ends meet.
She proposes selling the apartment, and her mother relocating to Madrid to live with Clara.
When Maria refuses, Clara delivers an ultimatum.
The apartment will be sold, and Maria can move into aged care.
There are some amusing encounters throughout, not least in the Aged Care Home, where the feisty Maria soon devises a plan to escape.
Moving back into the apartment, she cooks up a plan to stay and unexpectedly encounters passionate romance on the way with the antiques dealer Abslam (Ahmed Boulane), to whom Clara sold Maria’s furniture.
There are some lovely episodes along her journey to return to her old life. However, the plot leaves some unanswered questions, such as why the relationship between mother and daughter is so strained.
Nevertheless, Maria’s iron will and crafty cunning are refreshing in a film about a spirited senior citizen.
In Australian cinemas from April 23.
Reviewed by Kathryn Keeble