TÚ Y YO
A film by Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada
(Dominican Republic, 2014, 86 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)

The Mrs., an elderly widow, and Aridia, a young maid, live together in a house filled with orchids in the center of Santo Domingo. Aridia cleans, the Mrs. gardens, and when work is slow they share gossip. But sometimes the atmosphere gets tense: the Mrs. wakes up grumpy, she blames Aridia, and when Aridia tries to defend herself the Mrs. has to remind her “where her place is.” Then as the hours pass by a telenovela begins on TV, or something happens in the neighborhood, and the Mrs. and Aridia become close again, ending the day by sharing a few laughs.

Winner of a Special Jury Prize at the Cartagena Film Festival and acclaimed at Visions du Réel, the debut feature by Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada is a poignant chamber piece that delves deeply into divisions of class and race.

“Suggestive cinema about power relations and loneliness.”
— Jonathan Holland, The Hollywood Reporter

“A claustrophobic chamber massacre piece that recalls a Fassbinderian exercise in domination and submission. Like a Douglas Sirk melodrama that mirrors class and race struggle, two lonely women join forces because the world refuses them. Still, they cannot help but replicate on a smaller scale the oppression they endure themselves. A geometrical and observational melodrama.”
—Giona A. Nazzaro, Visions du Réel 

“Tú y yo’s understated approach seems to get at the contradictory heart of a society renowned for its warmth and openness, but racked by deep divisions of class and race”
—Andrew S. Vargas, Remezcla

Premieres on Sunday, April 5, 3pm EDT
Followed by a Q&A (in English) with the filmmakers in Cinema Tropical’s Facebook account at 5pm EDT.

Watch the trailer: