Synopsis
The Shame takes place over the course of a single morning. The morning in which Pepe and Lucía, a modern and well-to-do thirty-something year old couple, have decided to tell Jimena, the social worker, that life with Manu is very hard. They cannot handle their eight-year-old adopted Peruvian son and the last six months with him have turned their lives into a living hell. And they want to give him back. But a decision of this magnitude cannot be made just like that. A decision like this one has serious consequences. The Shame is based on the striking premise of returning an adopted son, and ends up telling the caustic, tender, and enjoyable tale of the doubts, paradoxes, mistakes, and pain of a couple living with shame. The film attempts to explore this knot in the stomach, which turns everything into a keen reminder of your mistakes, an intimate diary of what you never should have done, an affidavit of your shame. In a tone that is hard, rough and demanding, The Shame has moments tinged with dark humor, moments born out of a very meaningful and complex premise that must undoubtedly also turn to tenderness, liberating laughter, and the generosity of some characters who test their strength at the limits of what is tolerable, and who end up being reborn from out of their own ashes just when they have resigned themselves to losing the battle.