Calle Málaga

María Ángeles is a Spanish widow who has spent her life in Tangier, in the old family house on Calle Málaga. One day her daughter Clara arrives from Spain with news: she has decided to sell the house. María Ángeles is expected to leave. She has other plans. She is going to stay, get her house back and, piece by piece, recover the life inside it.

The film belongs to Carmen Maura, and she is magnificent. Stubborn, funny, sensual and full of mischief, she plays a woman who refuses to accept that old age means disappearing. Tangier is filmed with real tenderness: the narrow streets, the market, the neighbours of every language and faith who have known her for decades. Marta Etura is very good as the daughter, and Ahmed Boulane brings warmth and charm to the man who helps her rediscover love and desire.

It is a film about home, about the right to choose your own life at any age, and about a city where cultures have lived side by side for generations. It is gentle and sunny, and it knows exactly when to make you laugh and when to make you cry. It won the Audience Award in the Venice Spotlight section, and it is easy to see why. A warm, generous film.