‘On the edge’: good intentions are not enough

In the Spanish audiovisual industry, social cinema is one of the least lavish. Proof of this is the absence of famous directors who have distinguished themselves in this field, the referents are usually foreign directors such as Robert Guédiguian, the Dardenne brothers, Ken Loach or the tandem Kristina Grozeva-Petar Valchanov. Therefore Proposals such as “On the Edge” attract attention and that the directorial debut of actor Juan Diego Botto is seen as an attempt to give impetus of this cinematic aspect in the Spanish panorama.

‘At the margins’ wants to tell the reality of the excluded, in a more unified story than it initially seems, since three complementary plots are moving, two of which are linked to evictions and another to immigration and the alleged abandonment of minors. In all three stories he looks for Botto, who signs the script together with Olga Rodríguez giving visibility to three realities that have barely been addressed in the cinema and does so to give voice and face to those at risk of social exclusion, wanting to unmask the abandonment of duties by public institutions and how are the volunteers who end up doing the work the state is supposed to handle.

I know that Botto has good intentions, that his denunciation is very clear, that he wants to side with the weak, with the working class. By your side, It has a first-rate cast of actors, with Luis Tosar and Penélope Cruz at the helm. The first represents those volunteers who end up sacrificing their personal lives to help others, the second plays a worker who is about to be evicted from her apartment, remaining on the street with an absent husband and a minor child. Limit the situations that both interpreters defend with ease.

One of the most notable virtues of ‘In the margins’ is the interpretative quality, Botto proves to be a good actor directorPerhaps from personal experience. Also as regards his intentions to insert social cinema in the Spanish audiovisual industry, which is gradually beginning to have references, such as Juan Miguel del Castillo with ‘Roof and food’ or Belén Funes with ‘La hija de un thief’. However, ‘In the margins’ is closer to that attempt to give faces to those affected by mortgages that was the musical ‘Cerca de tu casa’.

Botto proves to be a good actor director

Both try to tell the injustices suffered by their protagonists and both are guilty of having a paternalistic look. In the case of “At the margins”, Botto forces some dramatic situations that make his protagonists live in a sort of vicious circle to which he condemns them. According to what he captures, belonging to the working class means having no hope, living in eternal misery from which it is impossible to escape. Added to this is a deliberate distrust of completely portraying public institutions as enemies, as well as not giving volunteering and activism, like the members of the Mortgage Affected Platform, their importance, as they are unable to avoid any eviction on tape, making more noise than anything else, when, in reality, his acting power is greater.

‘In the margins’ lacks brightness and has an excessively fatalistic character. As Botto also demonstrates, unwittingly, looking at what he says as an alien, as unaware of the reality that matters. This can be seen in some moments of the film, look more like a representation of the economic crisis of 2008, when what he tells is closer to the present, ignoring some changes that have been achieved in matters of evictions or social assistance.

This shows that, while having the best possible intentions when making a film of social denunciation, this is not enough to create a feature film not just cinematic quality, but knowing exactly what you want to portray and asking questions about what you are showing. As there are few current social cinema referents in Spanish industry, ‘In the margins’ can serve as a foothold; but it is far from subgenre masterpieces such as ‘Rosetta’, ‘The city is calm’ or ‘Pietre di Lloviendo’. That yes, as has been commented before, Botto proves to have the wood of an actor’s director.

Note: 6

The best: Its actors are magnificent, especially those two pillars of the film which are Luis Tosar and Penélope Cruz.

Worse: He is guilty of being too fatalistic and distant from the reality he denounces.