Familia (2010)

Nati Barrientos

Filmmakers Mikael Wiström and Alberto Herskovitz present an intimate look into a family struggling to improve their lives in this documentary. Daniel Barrientos and his wife Natividad Barrientos are a... read more  couple in their fifties raising four children. Daniel and Natividad live in a village in Peru decimated by poverty, and through most of their lives together, the couple has worked hard while just scraping by. Natividad has decided there's little future for her at home, so she moves to Spain and takes a job as a hotel chambermaid, hoping to make enough money that she can send some home to help her husband and children. However, this decision doesn't sit well with Daniel, who openly wonders if his wife still loves him. The couple's children are also upset by Natividad's absence, especially oldest daughter Judith, who now must take over many of the responsibilities that were one her mother's, and son Dani, who is going through a difficult phase and needs the guidance of his family. Famila is the third film Wiström has made about the Barrientos family, following Compadre (2004) and Dan Andra Stranden (1993). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi