Covering up the housing crisis with fantasies and games

From the 2008 crash emerged the small hedonisms of a youth marked by low wages and the erosion of social mobility: since we have no future left, we pay for more expensive coffee and pastries to enjoy the present. The van, an adaptation of the comic book of the same name, tells us about the subsequent reality clashes through the story of Os, a man who loves drawing and lives in a van after separating from his partner. Marked by the defensive humor of the main character, this dramatic comedy is a kind of Life is beautiful of the precariousness in which the adult covers up misery with games and fantasies to protect his daughter (or his pride?).

The film has a certain fairy-tale quality, a fabulous variation on reality where even the most exploitative businessmen are amusingly picturesque. The importance given to Marc Parrot's music, along with the inclusion of animated scenes, enhance the dual nature of the story: the praise of imagination coexists with the critique of the desire to escape from problems. The cast manages to give body to this universe of ambivalence, of poeticized realism, of solidarity between people who are about to fall off the cliffs of a world that seems impossible to change. The authors scratch without drawing blood: when the story starts to get too dramatic, a happy ending bursts in that can cause relief or a sarcastic smile... or both at the same time.

[All screenings in the original Catalan version] in this link]