Las Meninas
“Look where you dare not, and find yourself staring back.”
This film is about what the routine of everyday life can do to the human mind and psyche. It also reflects on the importance of the choices we make and how limited these choices are in the first place. The plot evolves around a family of four. They live in the suburbs, in a strange villa that appears, through a complex game of mirrors, to be more like a piece of installation art than a real house. The main character, who hardly appears on screen, is the son, a man in his thirties. Suffering from asthma and eczema since childhood, he uses his condition to manipulate his parents and his sister. Thus the existence of the terrorized family turns into an endless ritual of attempting to satisfy his whims, and always on the alert for yet another one of his “health crises”. Las Meninas resembles the scattered pieces of a puzzle. It is up to the viewer to assemble them in order to form his very own picture – something that makes the film itself personal and unique.
Where to watch
Not streaming anywhere
Not on any streaming service in United States, and not available to rent.
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Cast
8 people
Ihor Podolchak Director · Serhiy Mykhalchuk Cinematographer Tamara Podolchak Costume designer
Budget $850K · First release January 25, 2008 · Produced in Ukraine
Box office
Budget
$850,000
Production
MF Films (UA)
Production
Ukraine
Produced in
Languages
Original language
Ukrainian
Spoken on screen
French · Ukrainian
Release dates
Netherlands · January 25, 2008
Premiere · International Film Festival Rotterdam
Ukraine · October 5, 2009
Theatrical
No release date listed for United States.
Greece
September 18, 2008 · Premiere · Athens Film Festival
Italy
January 21, 2009 · Premiere · Trieste Film Festival
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Some details come from TheTVDB.