Un banco en el parque

After Juan has been living together for two years, his girlfriend gets a grant to study in London. On that day they both leave for good the flat they have been sharing. They have decided to conclude their relationship. But Juan doesn’t want to be on his own and decides to spend his afternoons meeting a new love, an encounter that he doesn’t want to leave to chance. After lengthy consultation with his new house-mate, he decides that he can best spend half an hour every afternoon sitting on a bench in the park and seeing what will happen. But that doesn’t have any effect at first. So Juan decides to add half an hour in a local bar. And then the problems start. On one and the same day he meets a nice girl in the park and then another in the bar. He will have to choose between Alicia (on the park bench) and Ana (at the bar). The début by the Spanish director Agustí Vila is filled with the metaphorical and absurd dialogues that also make the films of Hal Hartley so charming. In the cold and empty spaces, both indoors and out, we see the reflection of the fear of Juan’s generation of being alone. Without this being expressed, it looks like a demand to have a relationship. Is it possible to maintain the ideal of a relationship determined by chance under the pressure of the sudden element of choice?