Guillermo Galoe’s feature adaptation of his own award-winning short film is a vivid depiction of the maligned, frequently misrepresented Roma shanty-towns on the fringes of Madrid.
The bulldozers will continue to rid Europe’s great cities of the little-known Roma neighborhoods on their outskirts, but films like Sleepless City will help them be remembered for years to come.
Sleepless City 2025
Ciudad sin sueño
| Aug 02 |
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La Cañada Real is one of the last slums of Europe. An illegal settlement of mostly Romani, it’s where fifteen-year-old Tonino (Antonio Fernández Gabarre) lives with his sprawling clan, overseen by the patriarchal Chule (Jesús Fernández Silva). It is a place of stark poverty, no running water and rampant drug use. And yet, the space has its own, rough-hewn beauty, borne from a vibrant sense of community solidarity.
In a world of such precarity, young Tonino’s horizons seem to be ever-receding. The shanty-town is subject to constant demolition by the Spanish government; his best friend Bilal is moving away; his grandfather has paid off a debt by selling off his beloved greyhound Atomica. Then comes the news that his parents have accepted a governmental offer to move into a rent-controlled apartment, much to Chule’s chagrin.
Drawing comparisons to Fellini's early neo-realist films, this affecting bildungsroman utilises a cast of non-actors, filmed without scripts. Director Galoe is not simply interested in docu-realism, though, employing ambitious lensing and uncanny camera effects to suggest the squalor and unfettered freedom of a community forever teetering on the edge.
– Tom Augustine