Cobre

Understanding cinema as a combinatory art, every work by Nicolás Pereda sees him imaginatively reconfigure the same key elements: a minimalistic film grammar, a fixed group of actors and an interest in the workings of fiction. COBRE steps away from the explicit exploration of performance of his recent films to stage a simple, yet suspenseful family drama set in a mining town in Mexico, where Lázaro, his mother Teresa and his aunt Rosa live and work. Lázaro’s time is split between the mine, hospital visits due to his health and outings with Rosa and her partner Harold. Seemingly uneventful, the days see a certain tension grow amid the tedium, particularly in Lázaro’s relationship to Rosa. Much like LÁZARO DE NOCHE (2024), COBRE is a film about desire, particularly as shaped by material conditions. The tension that builds as the film progresses stems from this desire, which is depicted entirely without judgement. As always, Pereda embraces ambiguity, as most of the dramatic cues presented unfold towards dead ends, while the deliberately sketched-out situations are kept hanging in the air rather than being developed further. We are thus given the rare space to draw our own conclusions; such is the generosity of Pereda’s cinema. (Salvador Amores)

Nicolás Pereda: ¿DÓNDE ESTÁN SUS HIS- TORIAS? (2007), JUNTOS (2009), PER- PETUUM MOBILE (2009), TODO, EN FIN, EL SILENCIO LO OCUPABA (2010), VERANO DE GOLIAT (2010), LOS MEJORES TEMAS (2012), MATAR EX- TRAÑOS (2013), EL PALACIO (2013, K), LOS AUSENTES (2014), MINOTAURO (2015), TALES OF TWO WHO DREAMT (2016), MI PIEL, LUMINOSA (2019, K), FAUNA (2020), FLORA (2022, K), LÁZARO DE NOCHE (2024)