El otro barrio

El otro barrio is about roots, growing up and how memory works. About your vague consciousness of this when you’re only fifteen and about the influence that your surroundings, your family, your barrio – your neighbourhood – will have in the end.Ramón, who comes from Vallecas, a working-class area of Madrid, is fifteen and has already committed murder. In a bizarre sequence of events, he caught his best friend in the jugular, after which the victim’s girlfriend has fallen off the balcony and a man across the street is pushed downstairs. Ramón is sent to a home for problem children while awaiting trial. His mother and elder sister are convinced of his innocence, but they can’t do much for him. Only Marcelo, a young lawyer and old friend of the family, is able to help him. For Marcelo this means a return to the old neighbourhood where he grew up, something he doesn’t really want to think about any more. The introverted Ramón is quite happy in the home; he makes friends with his sick roommate Anibal, reads A Brief History of Time and the relationship with his lawyer gets closer after a difficult start.While Ramón becomes more grown up in his new surroundings, El otro barrio also sketches Marcelo’s perspective on his origins in a finely antipodal movement. García is sparing with dialogues and explanation; the reflective, beautifully framed images have more to say than words and leave plenty of room for the imagination.