By Pamela Rolfe. Flowers tells the story of Ane (Nagore Aranburu), whose life changes after she starts receiving flowers anonymously every week from someone who is not her husband. When the flowers stop arriving suddenly, she learns the identity of the sender —a married co-worker with whom she barely spoke and who had recently been killed in a car accident —and the film shifts from romance to remembrance. Ane begins her own ritual: laying flowers every week on the roadside at the site of the accident every week. Their presence stirs feelings in the man’s widow and his mother.
“We tried to tell a universal story that could be understood anywhere even though there are maybe some culture codes, like leaving flowers on the roadside. But, they are things that everyone can understand,” Goenaga explained.
Some have remarked on the irony of two men directing a story that reflects the inner workings of three women. That wasn't the original plan, Garanono said, but as the pair developed the story "it just seemed to work as a story of women. It seemed more credible that a woman received flowers. Another subject of the film that seems secondary, but was important to us, was motherhood. The motherhood that exists and the one that can’t be, and that is specifically linked to the world of women.”
Flowers was a minor success in Spain —selling 55,000 tickets, a strong performance for a Basque-language title —but failed to catch fire in the U.S., where Music Box Films bowed it in limited release this October. An Oscar nom could re-ignite interest, both in the film and for Basque cinema in general. Something the local industry, which is often over-shadowed by its southern, Spanish neighbors, would certainly welcome.
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