Beloved/Friend (Amic/Amat)
Ventura Pons, director.
Cataluña, 1998, 35mm, 90 min.
Catalan with English subtitles.
Official Web site: www.venturapons.com

This rich and complicated story plays out over the course of a single day in contemporary Barcelona. Faced with the fact that he is dying of a terminal illness, Jaume, a middle-aged professor, has entrusted to two men the diskettes containing his last essay - his legacy.

One is a professorial colleague, Pere, who Jaume now confesses was the love of his life. The other is David, a talented, hot-headed student, of whom he is currently enamoured. The handsome David, it turns out, makes his living as a male prostitute. Pere is furious when he learns that his daughter Alba is pregnant with David's child. His wife Fanny spends the afternoon with Alba discussing whether to keep the baby, and in the process, they learn about each other's lives.

Adapted from Josep Benet i Jornet's play, Testament, this is a darkly dense drama. As the five strong characters become increasingly intertwined, they argue, bargain, struggle and hurt one another. But they also discover the roots of their affection and passions, and this allows them to reconsider their futures.

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