Yo, tambien (2009)

Directed by: Álvaro Pastor, Antonio Naharro | 103 minutes | drama | Actors: Lola Dueñas, Isabel García Lorca, Antonio Naharro, Pablo Pineda, Joaquín Perles, Teresa Arbolí, Consuelo Trujillo, Ramiro Alonso, Ana De los Riscos, Catalina Lladó, Lourdes Naharro, Ana Peregrina, Pedro Álvarez-Ossorio, Susana Monje, Pepe Q

Daniel (Pablo Pineda) has recently graduated and is going to work at the city office in Seville. There he meets the capricious and licentious Laura (Lola Dueñas), whom he immediately falls for. Familiar story? Not if you know Daniel has Down syndrome! He was always stimulated by his parents to develop intellectually. As a result, he is the first European man with an intellectual disability to complete a university degree and he knows more about art, history and music than most ‘normal’ people. Yet Daniel is not happy. He wants a girlfriend to start a relationship with. And he wants sex. Laura seems like the ideal candidate. Although she seems a little raunchy to others, Daniel is blinded by her. She is the woman of his dreams. Laura turns to Daniel because he doesn’t judge her for her licentious lifestyle and makes her laugh. In this way she forgets her own worries for a while. But when Daniel admits to feeling more for her than just friendship, Laura starts to have doubts. Should she continue with this…?

A romantic comedy about a man with an intellectual disability? The Spanish directorial duo Antonio Naharro and Alvaro Pastor thought it was high time that attention was paid to the love lives of people with Down syndrome and came up with the film ‘Yo, también’ (‘Me too’, 2009). They draw on their own experience (Naharro, who also plays a role in the film, has a sister with a mental disability) to present the story as honest and sincere as possible. There are various pitfalls lurking for a film like this, but the relatively inexperienced director duo knows how to avoid them all skillfully. In this way ‘Yo, también’ remains believable from start to finish and the story doesn’t make any sense. People with Down syndrome are portrayed in a dignified way: from a certain age they too have a need for love, affection and yes, sex too. Because Naharro and Pastor are against the chest that these people are often overprotected from the outside world by family members (who, by the way, have the best interests at heart) and are not left free to make their own choices, they have an extra storyline. fitted around two young people in love with Down syndrome.

Naharro and Pastor owe a lot to the two protagonists of their film. Pablo Pineda is a remarkable appearance. Though mentally retarded, he is smart and articulate and lives well-adjusted within the ‘normal’ world. Pineda is a real phenomenon in Spanish-speaking countries, because of its remarkable knowledge and development. You’re tempted to think he’s simply playing himself, but that’s doing a disservice to this endearing Seville native. Sometimes it looks a bit forced (if he has to cry, for example), but that has more to do with the fact that he has Down syndrome than that he doesn’t know how to act. With his sharp humor and sympathetic appearance, he takes over the audience without any effort. The veteran Lola Dueñas (‘Mar adentro’, 2002) is even better in her portrayal of a woman who seems to throw her life away due to a traumatic event from the past, only to be awakened just in time by her remarkable friendship with Daniel . She is visibly marked by life and searching for herself. Dueñas has already won many awards and she was rightly lauded for this role. She deserves all the credit for her guts to take on this role alone.

‘Yo, también’ was one of the big audience favorites during the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2010. Not surprising, since lead actor Pablo Pineda quickly captivates the audience with his disarming personality. However, he does much more with people than just endearing them, he also knows how to stimulate them by displaying his self-confidence and making it clear that he wants nothing more than a ‘normal’ life, with ‘normal’ work and a ‘normal’ girlfriend. his side. The (im)possibilities of this are denounced in a razor-sharp manner in this film. ‘Yo, también’ could have become a real tearjerker that would have exploited its special protagonist as a circus attraction, but fortunately Naharro and Pastor did not succumb to cheap melodrama and kept their dignity, and that of Pineda. The end result is a remarkably sober, balanced and engaging drama with a smile and a tear. Rarely has a romantic comedy been so headstrong and original!