Subtitles: Madrid 1987

When you first queue up David Trueba’s provocative Spanish drama Madrid 1987 , you might think you know what you’re in for. The plot is famously claustrophobic: an aging, cynical journalist (José Sacristán) and a young, idealistic student (María Valverde) are trapped together, naked, in a bathroom for over 90 minutes. It’s a film about conversation, power, and the ghosts of Franco’s Spain.

She heard him move. The creak of his chair. The soft pad of his bare feet on the tile. Then his hand found hers in the dark—not a lover’s touch, but a drowning man’s. Fingers curling around her wrist as if she were a rope. madrid 1987 subtitles