Living alone has embittered Olga (Teresita Sánchez), an older woman who has a duplex in an apartment complex in Mexico City. Every day she watches TV, listens to talk radio, and plays Sudoku on her computer. Fastidious to a fault, she's tormented by the presence of house flies.
Olga complains about higher prices to a coffeeshop waitress. Problems with her feet lead her to a doctor's office, where she learns that a corrective procedure will cost a fortune. Reluctantly, she adds her name to a bulletin board advertising apartment space.
A day laborer and father (Hugo Ramírez) comes to Mexico City with his nine-year-old son Cristian (Bastian Escobar). The father visits his wife in a large hospital, telling Cristian later that she is too sick to have other visitors.
The father rents a room from Olga, sneaking Cristian inside when she isn't looking. The ruse only works a few days before Olga discovers the boy. She orders them out by the weekend. To pay the extra bill, the father leaves on a construction job.
Olga orders Cristian to remain in his bedroom, but soon he is sneaking outside visit his mother. Unable to get past hospital guards, he tries bribing nurses. Eventually he befriends Isaac (Enrique Arreola), a hospital worker. He brings Cristian to what is supposed to be his mother's room, only a different patient is in there. When she starts screaming, Cristian is thrown out, and Isaac loses his job.
Cristian's only comfort is Cosmic Defender Pro, a video game outside a candy store. Olga follows him there after discovering that he has been stealing her pocket change. Ready to punish him, Olga sees how important the game is to him. She used to play it herself as a teen with her boyfriend.
The deepening relationship between Olga and Cristian makes up the bulk of the remaining plot. She recognizes the fear and hurt consuming him, although her efforts to help are largely ineffective.
Director Fernando Eimbcke tells long portions of Moscas from Cristian's point of view. Low-angle cameras capture the alleyways where he plays, the hulking apartment complex and hospital compound obscure, mysterious backgrounds.
Eimbcke and his co-writer Vanesa Garnica place a lot of metaphoric weight on Cosmic Defender Pro, a game created by production designer Alfredo Wigueras because the rights to Space Invaders proved too expensive. The idea of Cristian finding solace in imaginary battles makes sense in the abstract, but they play out in a predictable fashion.
Otherwise Moscas is exceptionally well thought out. The story line has the simplicity and focus of a fairy tale, while the black-and-white cinematography by María Secco, AMC, captures the urban locations with superb compositions and exposures.
Bastian Escobar gives an excellent performance as Cristian, hemmed in on every side by bad news but still trying to find a path forward. Teresita Sánchez is outstanding in a difficult role as Olga, someone who has become habituated to disappointment.
Sánchez has a short scene where she dances in her living room to old records. Her transformation from depressed to buoyant is perhaps the most delightful surprise in Moscas, a simple, sincere, winning film that deserves wider exposure.
Screened in Competition at Berlinale. Photo © Kinotitlán.