Mivida (2019)

Directed by: Norbert ter Hall | 88 minutes | drama | Actors: Loes Luca, Elvira Mínguez, Loïc Bellemans, Mark Kraan, Fermi Reixach, Jason Mba, Anniek Pheifer, Diewertje Dir, Ida Ogbamichael, Eugenia Verdu, Bella Agossou, Verónica Echegui

‘Mi vida’ was a dream project for director Norbert ter Hall (TV series “A’dam – EVA”, ‘&Me’). In a diary written for Het Parool we read how much effort it took him to bring this project to a successful conclusion despite almost Terry Gilliam-like setbacks. There is a nice double layer in it, because that is exactly what ‘Mi vida’ is about: making your dreams come true.

Lou (Loes Luca) has just arrived in Cadiz, a port city in the south of Spain. The hairdresser from Schiedam needs a new direction in her life and so she has decided to sell her hairdresser’s shop and take a Spanish course in the place where you can learn a new language best. Lou has a mountain of life experience at 63, which makes her insecure attitude all the more endearing. Uncomfortably she moves into the small room with a busy Spanish family, where the children look at her with suspicion and the lady of the house finds it strange that she is so old. “Usually the students are younger”.

At the first Spanish lesson, Lou gets… er… Spanish stuffy when it turns out that the lesson for beginners is already given entirely in Spanish. There is a bit of a clash between her and the haughty teacher, but that turns out to be just a facade: Andrea is actually the same as Lou, but ten years younger… a woman with many unfulfilled dreams and hopes for the future.

The two women slowly grow closer and with that friendship, Lou’s desire to really change course grows. But when her pregnant daughter (Anniek Pheifer) unexpectedly visits Cádiz, doubt strikes again. Was Lou a good mother? Didn’t her work always come first? Isn’t it about time she fixes her past mistakes?

‘Mi vida’ is a nice, warm film about chasing your dreams, the views of how others think you should live your life and how easy it is to give in to those expectations of others. Lou was stuck in her role as mother and grandmother, because that’s what was expected of her, but does that make her happy? It is an honest portrait of a woman who, after so many years, still struggles to cut the figurative umbilical cord; fair also because, apart from the first half hour, Lou shows herself as she is. Unadorned, human, real. A short fragment in which she checks her breasts for lumps in front of the mirror is subtle and daring and says enough about the entire history of this sympathetic woman.

Loes Luca is a joy to watch. Her co-star Elvira Mínguez, in a role that director Norbert ter Hall had actually assigned to regular Pedro Almodóva actress Rossy de Palma, also shines in her portrayal of the temperamental Andrea. You might think that this film about middle-aged women is only suitable for that target group, but nothing could be further from the truth. The universal theme is presented convincingly and naturally, so that ‘Mi vida’ is recommended for anyone with an interest in serious cinema.