''La soledad'' (English: ''Solitary Fragments'') is a 2007 Spanish drama film written and directed by

Jaime Rosales Jaime Heliberto Rosales Chirinos (born 8 June 1978) is a Honduran former football defender who last played for Platense. Club career Rosales started his professional career at Marathón and played for several clubs in the Honduran league. A ...

. It was Rosales's second film: he had previously made ''

The Hours of the Day ''The'' is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the ...

''. ''Solitary Fragments'', divided in five chapters, follows a

dual narrative A dual narrative is a form of narrative that tells a story in two different perspectives, usually two different people. Dual narrative is also an effective technique that can be used to tell the story of people (or one person) at two different poi ...

; the characters' lives unfold as a series of everyday concerns over health, work, shelter, relationships and money. Made with a small budget and with actors from the theater scene, the film was nominated for three

Goya Awards The Goya Awards () are Spain's main national annual film awards. They are presented by the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain. The first ceremony was held in 1987, a year after the founding of the Academy of Cinematographic Ar ...

, Spain's most prestigious film awards. It won all three awards, including the Best Film and Director award. Voted by Spanish film critics as Best Film of the year for that reason, it was given the Fotogramas de Plata Award.

Plot

Adela, a young woman recently separated from her husband and with one-year-old baby, is tired of her life in her small hometown of León. She leaves behind the mountains and the country life to move to

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 ...

. She gets a job as a hostess and moves into an apartment with Carlos and Inés, a nice young couple. The three get along well then, sharing meals, doubts and leisure. Antonia, Inés's mother, has a small neighborhood supermarket. She leads a fairly quiet life with her boyfriend Manolo. Antonia has two more daughters: Nieves and Helena, the eldest. However, little by little, Antonias's pleasant life begins to crumble. First, a doctor detects that Nieves has cancer. Later, the already tense relationship between her daughters gets more complicated when Helena asks her mother borrowed money to buy an apartment on the beach. Adela has no major difficulties in adapting to urban life, even though the father of her baby does not help her economically. While traveling by bus, she is one of the victims of a terrorist attack, leaving her life in tatters. From that moment she should find the strength to return to a normal life.

Cast

* María Bazán - Helena *

Petra Martínez Petra Martínez Pérez (born 24 June 1944) is a Spanish actress who has had a long career on stage, film and television. Career Martínez was in the cast of the 1967 stage play ''Twelfth Night'' by William Shakespeare. In 2011, Uroc Teatro, ...

- Antonia *

Sonia Almarcha Sonia Almarcha (born 1972) is a Spanish actress. Biography Born in Pinoso, province of Alicante, in 1972, Almarcha studied at and graduated from Valencia's Dramatic Art School (1986–1989). She further trained her acting chops at the William L ...

- Adela * Miriam Correa - Inés * Nuria Mencía - Nieves * Jesús Cracio - Manolo * - Carlos *

José Luis Torrijo José Luis Torrijo (born 9 February 1967) is a Spanish theatre, television and film actor. His most acclaimed film performance is his role in '' Solitary Fragments'' for which he won the Goya Award for Best New Actor. Biography José Luis Torri ...

- Pedro *

Juan Margallo Juan Francisco Margallo Rivera (24 September 1940 – 2 March 2025) was a Spanish actor, theatre director and dramaturge. Margallo was considered one of the main actors in Spanish theater. Life and career He worked with Miguel Narros, Luis Es ...

- Padre Adela

Awards and nominations

:''To see the complete list of awards and nominations, see thi
link
''

*Best Director (Jaime Rosales, winner) *Best Film (winner) *Best New Actor (José Luis Torrijo, winner)

Spanish Actors Union The Spanish Union of Actors and Actresses () is the professional and independent union that represents the interests of the profession in Spain. Most of the film, theater and television actors in Spain are members; it currently has approximately 2, ...

*Best Actress (Petra Martínez, nominee)

References

Interview with Jaime Rosales tras recibir los Premios Goya
''

20 minutos ''20 minutos'' is a Spanish free newspaper, with local editions in several Spanish cities, published by Multiprensa & Mas S.L. History Multiprensa & Mas S.L. was founded in Madrid in 1999. The founder of 20 minutos is José Antonio Martínez ...

'', February 5, 2008
Son pocos, son valientes
''

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...

'', February 10, 2008

External links

* {{Goya Award for Best Film 2007 films 2007 drama films 2000s Spanish-language films Films set in Madrid Best Film Goya Award winners Spanish drama films 2000s Spanish films