La mala familia

Away from the summer heat in Madrid, a group of friends gather to cool off and party but they can't escape the pressure of their past in this raw first feature from the cutting-edge film collective BRBR.

Shot in a documentary style using handheld cameras and phone footage, filmmakers Nacho A. Villar and Luis Rojo employ a cast of non-professional actors to play themselves in a rerun of their own real-life drama. The action opens in a courtroom, where we see the men avoiding prison by agreeing to pay monetary compensation for a terrible crime they have committed.

Eight years later, they reunite one balmy evening to celebrate their friend Andres’ release from prison that day. With the dark shadow of their misdemeanour hanging over them, they drink, eat and argue in an attempt to move on with their lives. But the incident cannot be erased. Each has battled with addiction, prison, back-breaking jobs and police brutality. But the fine they are still paying makes moving on difficult, and they all become prisoners of their past in this stripped-down take of modern manhood on the fringes of society.

– Justine Maybank