Sebastián Silva’s film follows the routine of Raquel (Catalina Saavedra), a maid for a wealthy Chilean family who’s passed her 20th year of service. She devotes her life to them, but not without malice.
She has an unjustified distaste for Camila (Andrea García-Huidobro), the eldest child, scratching Camila’s face out of photo albums. But the signora, Pilar (Claudia Celedón), overlooks Raquel’s transgressions, particularly the abuses she commits against the maids hired to help her. (Her favorite? Locking them out while they take out the trash.)
Insight into Raquel’s background (and everyone else’s) is minimal, the pace is slow, and there’s little plot, but the grainy texture creates a documentary feel, and in the end the characters’ multi-dimensionality makes any loose ends unimportant.
