Tiempo compartido (2018)

Directed by: Sebastian Hofmann | 96 minutes | drama, comedy, thriller | Actors: Luis Gerardo Méndez, Miguel Rodarte, RJ Mitte, Cassandra Ciangherotti, Montserrat Marañon, Andrés Almeida, Hugo Albores, Pablo Guisa Koestinger, Bernardo Vega

‘Tiempo compartido’ is a black satire that examines the concept of timeshare. For those who don’t know what that is: with timeshare you can use a holiday accommodation for a few weeks a year, such as you find in warm countries such as Spain, Turkey or Greece. You have to sign a (strangulation) contract to which you are often tied for years, which means that as a mandatory member of the timeshare organization you also pay for management and maintenance of the accommodation.

In ‘Tiempo compartido’ we meet Pedro, his wife Eva and son Ratón, who have arrived for a long-awaited break in their luxurious apartment with its own swimming pool. The Vistamar holiday resort is fully equipped, you don’t even have to entertain your children, because the animation team is ready. Pedro and Eva don’t get much time to enjoy and get closer to each other, because after a first dive in the pool, the doorbell rings. Their apartment turns out to be double booked: there is another family that is entitled to the stay. Pedro and the paterfamilias of the other family go to battle with the management of the resort recently taken over by an American multinational, but there is only one winner and that is not Pedro. Eva has meanwhile already made the decision to grant the noisy family access to the apartment at least for the first night. They do sleep on the couch in the living room.

Parallel to Pedro’s nightmarish holiday experience (Eva and Ratón seem to absorb the events more easily), we see in ‘Tiempo compartido’ how Andrés, an employee of Vistamar, fare after a nervous breakdown. His wife Gloria – who also works at the holiday resort – seems further removed from him with every career leap. Or does that have to do with the tragic event in their past?

The film by Mexican director Sebastian Hofmann works on several fronts: it is a black and surreal comedy, contains dramatic elements, but also meets the requirements of a thriller – the viewer has no idea where the story is going and gives the sinister atmosphere you feel uneasy. The sophisticated camera work and art direction certainly contribute to this. The use of color and the compositions are always special and tell more than the plot itself actually does. Hofmann makes a great business card with this paranoid, social-critic infused psychological horror drama.