''What You Never Knew'' () is a 2000 Spanish romantic drama film directed by (in his directorial debut feature) based on

Almudena Grandes María de la Almudena Grandes Hernández (7 May 1960 – 27 November 2021) was a Spanish writer. Author of 14 novels and three short-story collections, her work has been translated into twenty languages and frequently adapted to film. She won t ...

' short story "El vocabulario de los balcones" which stars Sílvia Munt and

Gary Piquer Gary Piquer is a Spanish actor. He appeared in more than forty films since 1979. Selected filmography References External links

* Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Spanish male film actors 21st-century Spanish m ...

alongside

Andrés Gertrúdix Andrés Gertrúdix (born 1977) is a Spanish actor. Biography Andrés Gertrúdix was born in 1977 in Madrid. He made his feature film debut in Ray Loriga's ''My Brother's Gun''. He is the partner of actress Marian Álvarez, whom with he has fea ...

, Cristina Brondo, and Daniel Guzmán.

Plot

Split in two different times (1974 and 1999), and set in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, the plot follows the botched love story between a well-off woman and a vulgar man from

Vallecas Vallecas was a municipality of Spain that disappeared as such in 1950, when its annexation to the municipality of Madrid took place. Nowadays, the territory is roughly occupied by two districts: Puente de Vallecas (population 240,917) and V ...

who first met upon facing each other from

balconies A balcony (from , "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. They are commonly found on multi-level houses, apartme ...

on opposite sides of the street.

Cast

Production

The film is an adaptation of

' short story "El vocabulario de los balcones", included in ''Modelos de mujer''. The film is an Enrique Cerezo PC and Samarkanda production and it had the participation of TVE and .

Release

The film was selected in the Zabaltegi (New Directors) lineup of the 48th

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; , ) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spain, Spanish city of Donostia, Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Countr ...

. It was released theatrically in Spain on 24 November 2000.

Reception

Jonathan Holland of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' deemed the film to be a "graceful love story that shuttles back and forth between time periods and between pleasure and frustration".

References