Old Cats

Isadora (Belgica Castro) and Enrique (Alejandro Sievking) live a comfortable life. They have a modest yet elegant apartment in Santiago’s old downtown district complete with a lovely terrace and mountain views. Well into their 80’s, they both maintain their independence and live happily with their books, their eclectic art, and most of all with their beloved two ample cats. That is until, one day, the building’s elevator breaks and unable to descend the ten flights down, Isadora is left a prisoner in her own home. At the same inconvenient time, Isadora’s passionate “wild child” daughter Rosario (Claudia Celedon) and her butch female lover, Hugo, (Catalina Saavedra) come for a visit with a new “scheme” of how to make them all rich. The one glitch is that the elderly couple must sign over the lease to their apartment. The tug of war between mother and daughter escalates when Isadora, beginning to show signs of onset senility, has a near dangerous adventure and bravely journeys down ten flights and onto the crowded Santiago streets. Once rescued, mother and daughter and their respective spouses begin the slow process of forgiveness and begin to see a new future. Using many of the same actors as THE MAID, Sebastian Silva and co-director Pedro Peirano have made a touching film of black humor and pathos reflecting the often treacherous territory of mother-daughter relationships and the empathy needed to find a survivable neutral ground.