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52% Critic Match
Las Meninas
“Look where you dare not, and find yourself staring back.”
5.2 / 10• 2009• 1h 39m•NR• Ukrainian
Drama
Storyline
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.
Cast & Crew
Mykola Veresen
Father
Lead
Liubov Tymoshevska
Mother
Hanna Yarovenko
Daughter
DC
Dmytro Chernyavsky
Son
Ilona Arsentieva
Young Daughter
Stas Arsentiev
Young Son
Valeriya Ulyanchenko
Young Mother 1
VU
Viktoriya Ulyanchenko
Young Mother 2
What People Are Saying
3.0
“A staggering achievement of craft and ambition. Ihor Podolchak's vision lands with breathtaking precision.”
3.0
“Every frame feels alive. Las Meninas is the rare release that takes its audience seriously.”
