A beautifully constructed documentary that depicts with great subtlety…
Plastic Killer
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
View on the Pragda STREAM site
Amparo survives in an old deserted haberdashery with Carmela (Laura Gómez-Lacueva), a plastic bag which she considers her own daughter.
Citation
Main credits
Pozo, Jose (film director)
Pozo, Jose (screenwriter)
Pozo, Jose (film producer)
Ortiz, David (film producer)
Gómez-Lacueva, Laura (actor)
Mota, José (actor)
Terri, Elisabet (actor)
Other credits
Cinematography, Luis Ángel Pérez; editing, Pep Carrique; music, Óscar Araujo.
Distributor subjects
Short Films; Women; Mental Health; FamilyKeywords
00:01:13.083 --> 00:01:16.125
I told you so, Carmela,
...I don’t like when you go out alone.
00:01:17.083 --> 00:01:19.833
The streets are dangerous and people
nowadays aren’t what they used to be.
00:01:20.458 --> 00:01:23.791
Before, you could go wherever you wanted,
everyone loved you. But now...
00:01:25.333 --> 00:01:28.375
...now it would be best if you rest a while,
and I’ll draw you a bath.
00:01:28.416 --> 00:01:30.791
Just look at you! You’re a mess.
00:01:34.041 --> 00:01:36.458
TWO DAYS AGO
00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:38.125
I see you!
00:01:43.458 --> 00:01:45.291
I’m your neighbor,
...from the fifth floor.
00:01:45.750 --> 00:01:47.208
Yes, I’ve seen you before.
00:01:47.958 --> 00:01:49.250
They call you the stuck-up chick.
00:01:49.875 --> 00:01:51.458
- What’s your name?
- Nancy.
00:01:51.958 --> 00:01:53.875
Of course, ...like the doll.
00:01:54.583 --> 00:01:56.375
I’m going to be straight with you.
00:01:56.666 --> 00:01:58.041
Will you also be going shopping today?
00:01:58.291 --> 00:02:01.541
Well, I’ll answer that with another question...
00:02:01.791 --> 00:02:03.333
How the hell is that your business?
00:02:03.833 --> 00:02:07.666
It’s my business if you are going to use
that element derived from petroleum
00:02:07.875 --> 00:02:09.833
that is known as polyethylene
in various states of thickness,
00:02:10.041 --> 00:02:15.208
...with it’s main function being to carry products
and to collect trash from your home.
00:02:19.166 --> 00:02:22.500
Are you going shopping with that
old disgusting plastic bag?
00:02:22.708 --> 00:02:24.583
Although it would still be disgusting if it were new.
00:02:24.625 --> 00:02:29.375
But it couldn’t be new, because they
no longer make those fucking bags.
00:02:29.666 --> 00:02:30.541
THEY’RE BANNED!!!
00:02:30.958 --> 00:02:32.125
You’ll wake up my child!
00:02:32.500 --> 00:02:34.708
- What bag are you talking about?
- Don’t play dumb with me.
00:02:34.791 --> 00:02:38.958
Your continuous infractions were the main topic
yesterday at the neighborhood meeting.
00:02:39.166 --> 00:02:40.000
...And,
00:02:41.708 --> 00:02:46.500
you can’t live here, it’s illegal, …and you know it.
00:02:46.958 --> 00:02:47.875
This is my house!
00:02:47.916 --> 00:02:51.500
Your house? We’re going to seize this dump.
You haven’t paid dues to our community.
00:02:51.708 --> 00:02:55.125
Also, this place is a danger for us,
00:02:55.500 --> 00:02:58.166
...anyone could come in from the street
because the blinds are always open.
00:02:58.333 --> 00:02:59.333
They’ve always been open.
00:02:59.791 --> 00:03:01.791
This place was inaugurated
by my great grandmother Amparo,
00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:05.708
and it belonged to my grandmother Amparo,
then to my mother Amparo, and now,
00:03:06.291 --> 00:03:07.500
...now, if you’ll excuse me...
00:03:10.125 --> 00:03:12.708
- I know a plastic shoe when I see one.
- Huh!
00:03:14.166 --> 00:03:19.375
You have 24 hours to hand over that bag or...
...we’ll go to the police.
00:03:53.583 --> 00:03:55.833
Shit. I don’t know how to read.
00:04:03.291 --> 00:04:06.333
Romualdo García, police inspector.
Are you Amparo de Dios?
00:04:07.333 --> 00:04:08.041
May I come in?
00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:09.666
What for?
00:04:10.416 --> 00:04:11.833
OPEN UP, YOU WHORE!!!
00:04:32.958 --> 00:04:33.750
Have a seat.
00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:48.166
Your family?
00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:50.583
No.
00:04:54.166 --> 00:04:55.166
Would you like?
00:04:55.250 --> 00:04:57.916
Yes, I’m always up for a cup of coffee.
00:05:00.125 --> 00:05:02.500
I’m sorry, this is the last of it.
00:05:03.250 --> 00:05:03.916
I see...
00:05:05.375 --> 00:05:07.333
Do you live here?
00:05:07.541 --> 00:05:08.291
Yes, of course.
00:05:08.708 --> 00:05:09.208
Well, no,
00:05:09.833 --> 00:05:12.333
...as a seamstress, I have to put in long hours.
00:05:12.541 --> 00:05:14.291
This store belonged to my saint of a mother,
00:05:14.500 --> 00:05:16.916
and the neighborhood folks would give us
things to patch up at all hours...
00:05:17.125 --> 00:05:18.291
...so I finally just transferred here.
00:05:18.666 --> 00:05:19.833
So you do live here...
00:05:20.833 --> 00:05:21.750
I just told you I don’t.
00:05:23.166 --> 00:05:25.166
Well, I didn’t come for that.
00:05:25.916 --> 00:05:27.958
I want to apologize for insulting you at the door
00:05:28.166 --> 00:05:32.750
...it’s something I can’t control.
I’ve had Tourette’s Syndrome since I was fifteen...
00:05:32.833 --> 00:05:35.125
Don’t worry. Folks have been
insulting me way before that.
00:05:35.416 --> 00:05:39.083
It’s something in the nervous system
that affects the brain and the nerves,
00:05:39.250 --> 00:05:43.000
and forces me to make sudden repeated movements
..also known as vocal tics.
00:05:47.791 --> 00:05:50.000
Do you live alone?
00:05:50.208 --> 00:05:51.875
No, …with my baby.
00:05:52.125 --> 00:05:54.916
- I didn’t know you had a daughter.
- I wasn’t aware we knew each other...
00:05:55.041 --> 00:05:57.125
- We don’t, but I’m sure you know why I’m here...
- NO.
00:05:58.250 --> 00:05:59.666
What a nice word. No.
00:05:59.916 --> 00:06:01.208
- Yes, right?
- NO.
00:06:04.291 --> 00:06:10.000
Look, they found her body last night
on the Arganzuela bridge.
00:06:10.208 --> 00:06:12.458
She had gotten a life-threatening beating.
00:06:14.833 --> 00:06:16.208
Do you know her?
00:06:16.875 --> 00:06:22.333
- Very little. Poor thing, may she rest in peace.
- I didn’t say she was dead.
00:06:24.458 --> 00:06:27.625
- What happened to your face?
- Don’t worry. It’s been like that since birth.
00:06:27.875 --> 00:06:29.500
I’m talking about that bruise...
00:06:41.333 --> 00:06:42.625
- Sorry.
- You seem tired.
00:06:43.041 --> 00:06:45.250
That’s my narcolepsy.
00:06:45.666 --> 00:06:48.625
My mother always told me not to take drugs.
They destroy you.
00:06:48.833 --> 00:06:51.083
It’s a chronic disorder that’s incurable.
00:06:51.500 --> 00:06:58.166
I also suffer from cataplexy, a rapid loss
of voluntary muscle tone that can hit at any time.
00:06:58.375 --> 00:07:03.833
It happens when I’m extremely tense
or when I laugh a lot, or...
00:07:04.916 --> 00:07:07.125
Well, ...it’ll pass in two minutes.
00:07:07.541 --> 00:07:10.166
You can open a Chinese bazaar,
...you’ve got everything.
00:07:13.500 --> 00:07:16.666
You haven’t told me if you’re married,
or if you have a partner...
00:07:16.833 --> 00:07:18.333
I’ve never been with a man.
00:07:18.541 --> 00:07:21.500
But you have a daughter...
BITCH! FUCKING WHORE!!!
00:07:22.541 --> 00:07:24.833
Carmela, ...but she’s adopted.
00:07:25.958 --> 00:07:28.083
And where is she now? At school?
00:07:28.208 --> 00:07:30.208
No, I don’t believe in the school system.
00:07:30.666 --> 00:07:32.708
Anyway, I adopted her twenty years ago.
00:07:33.416 --> 00:07:34.708
May I speak with her?
00:08:05.833 --> 00:08:07.625
The poor girl is wiped out.
00:08:08.458 --> 00:08:12.250
She tends to come back dirty when she goes out at night,
but never as bad as yesterday.
00:08:12.750 --> 00:08:14.916
- This bag is yours?
- What bag are you talking about?
00:08:15.166 --> 00:08:16.375
It’s smeared with blood...
00:08:16.583 --> 00:08:19.500
- I have to give her a bath and clean off all this mess.
- That’s not going to happen.
00:08:19.708 --> 00:08:24.958
...I’m going to have to ask you not to come close
to the bag from this moment on.
00:08:25.250 --> 00:08:25.708
Thanks!
00:08:28.291 --> 00:08:29.250
What are you going to do?
00:08:31.625 --> 00:08:34.791
No, no, no... my child does not like
to have her picture taken, huh?
00:08:34.916 --> 00:08:36.208
Don't touch her, you bastard!
00:08:36.333 --> 00:08:39.791
- Stand back and let me do my job.
- Don't shout, you'll wake up the child
00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:42.291
- I WON’T SAY IT AGAIN!
- Don't do this!
00:08:42.500 --> 00:08:45.125
BITCH ON WHEELS! SLUT!!!
00:09:21.291 --> 00:09:23.375
You fell asleep again.
Would you like a coffee?
00:09:24.333 --> 00:09:25.958
No, thanks.
00:09:28.041 --> 00:09:28.875
Do you speak german?
00:09:29.125 --> 00:09:31.833
Four little words my mother’s legionnaire
boyfriend taught me.
00:09:32.333 --> 00:09:34.000
He always wanted to teach me things.
00:09:34.583 --> 00:09:35.708
Have you seen her?
00:09:37.083 --> 00:09:39.875
She looks much better after having a bath,
but she’s gone back to sleep.
00:09:40.083 --> 00:09:41.708
Maybe she has the same thing you have?
00:09:42.666 --> 00:09:43.375
Amparo,
00:09:44.708 --> 00:09:46.416
...you’ve gotten yourself into a lot of trouble.
00:09:55.791 --> 00:09:58.583
What have you done?
You took out my SIM card?
00:09:58.791 --> 00:10:01.166
What card? I’ve never had one
of those gadgets in my life.
00:10:01.375 --> 00:10:05.125
If you’re not leaving me any other choice,
I’m going to have to arrest you for obstructing evidence.
00:10:05.291 --> 00:10:06.625
Because I bathed my child?
00:10:07.250 --> 00:10:09.500
That thing is not your daughter.
00:10:10.041 --> 00:10:12.541
It’s a plastic bag.
00:10:13.375 --> 00:10:14.208
Plastic!
00:10:14.750 --> 00:10:18.458
The same one you used to attack
and asphyxiate your neighbor Nancy.
00:10:19.083 --> 00:10:20.250
Am I wrong?
00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:25.458
The whole neighborhood knows
you argued yesterday...
00:10:25.750 --> 00:10:30.125
and it’s all because you insist on going shopping
with that bag that is not biodegradable,
00:10:30.333 --> 00:10:34.791
something that on it’s own is now
a misdemeanor within our penal code.
00:10:36.458 --> 00:10:42.875
Did you know that in Rwanda people hide plastic bags
in their bras and in their underwear,
00:10:43.083 --> 00:10:47.750
they even roll them up under their sleeves,
so they can cross the border.
00:10:47.875 --> 00:10:48.875
Rwanda?
00:10:49.500 --> 00:10:53.250
...I just know line 1 of the subway.
Well, I’m lying, I did catch line 2 once,
00:10:53.458 --> 00:10:55.958
the one that goes froom La Elipa to Cuatro Caminos,
but it was only a couple of stops.
00:10:56.166 --> 00:10:56.916
Things my mother used to--
00:10:59.625 --> 00:11:00.500
BITCH!!!
00:11:00.958 --> 00:11:02.750
Answer me. ANSWER ME!!
00:11:03.208 --> 00:11:06.875
My daughter hasn’t assaulted anyone,
…she’s the victim.
00:11:10.875 --> 00:11:14.291
THE DAY BEFORE
00:11:20.583 --> 00:11:21.583
I warned you!
00:11:22.625 --> 00:11:26.291
You and your trashy bag are going
to get out of this building.
00:11:26.791 --> 00:11:28.375
What bag are you talking about?
00:11:43.166 --> 00:11:48.833
If you’re thinking of going into that grungy cubicle
with the bag, it’ll be over my dead body.
00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:51.458
Very good idea, bitch.
00:11:52.333 --> 00:11:53.416
What did you say?
00:11:56.333 --> 00:11:59.416
You damned street person. Let go of it!
00:12:00.750 --> 00:12:01.833
No, no, no, no...
00:12:18.791 --> 00:12:20.125
Come here!
00:12:25.958 --> 00:12:31.291
I swear I’ll end you and that piece of trash
if it’s the last thing I do in my life.
00:12:31.750 --> 00:12:33.500
If you ever touch my daughter again...
00:12:33.583 --> 00:12:34.958
I'LL KILL YOU!!!
00:12:44.625 --> 00:12:46.375
Is that why you killed her, right?
00:12:46.583 --> 00:12:48.250
Didn’t you say she wasn’t dead?
00:12:48.666 --> 00:12:50.166
I can’t talk about it,
00:12:50.875 --> 00:12:55.333
but that young woman had a reputation
as an activist in PLASTICFRI.
00:12:56.208 --> 00:12:57.166
Do you know what that is?
00:12:57.583 --> 00:12:59.750
No... but I imagined she had a reputation for something.
00:13:00.083 --> 00:13:02.375
The biggest environmental organization in the world.
00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:08.041
Thanks to them, humanity is free of millions
of metric tons of plastic
00:13:08.250 --> 00:13:10.541
that was being discarded into our rivers and oceans.
00:13:10.708 --> 00:13:17.375
Thanks to them, the environment is protected
from the misuse of our planet by people like you.
00:13:17.583 --> 00:13:18.291
BITCH!!!
00:13:19.208 --> 00:13:21.500
I always throw the plastic right in the damn trash can.
00:13:21.791 --> 00:13:24.833
And the garbage men pick up my trash,
and I would assume they take it to the dump.
00:13:25.041 --> 00:13:28.083
I don’t think those little bits of plastic
can walk on their own to the rivers or oceans.
00:13:28.291 --> 00:13:31.041
So it’s not plastic’s fault,
…it’s the fault of human beings.
00:13:31.208 --> 00:13:35.708
Amparo, when we get through everything that happened,
you’re going to have a big reveal,
00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:38.250
and you’re going to suffer the consequences.
00:13:38.666 --> 00:13:43.291
So, the best thing you can do is confess
and start praying.
00:13:51.791 --> 00:13:52.500
What are you doing?
00:13:53.625 --> 00:13:54.083
What is this?
00:13:55.250 --> 00:13:56.583
Are you pulling my leg or what?
00:13:57.208 --> 00:13:58.458
I don’t know any other way to do it.
00:13:58.666 --> 00:14:01.250
Stop playing dumb.
I know with a scientific certainty what happened.
00:14:01.458 --> 00:14:02.083
SIT DOWN!!!
00:14:10.083 --> 00:14:12.375
Let me remind you of what happened yesterday...
00:14:35.708 --> 00:14:37.083
What are you doing here?
00:14:40.708 --> 00:14:44.291
Ah, you finally brought me the bag.
00:14:44.750 --> 00:14:46.958
It is the best thing for everyone, and for all.
00:14:49.583 --> 00:14:50.333
Drop it!
00:14:51.333 --> 00:14:54.291
Drop it! DROP IT!!!
00:14:56.000 --> 00:14:58.000
I told you not to touch my baby!
00:14:59.916 --> 00:15:04.083
No, no, no… Wait, wait!
All this has an explanation...
00:15:04.541 --> 00:15:08.041
I just want to protect her!
She’s the last of her kind!
00:15:08.875 --> 00:15:10.291
Look, …the earrings,
00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:14.416
My shoes, the handbag,
all of them are pure plastic...
00:15:14.541 --> 00:15:16.708
This whole thing about campaigns is fake.
00:15:16.916 --> 00:15:19.625
A pantomime to make it look like
we’re doing something that matters, but...
00:15:20.500 --> 00:15:24.208
...but truly, I’m pro-plastic.
Who could live without it?
00:15:26.500 --> 00:15:27.208
And this?
00:15:28.208 --> 00:15:29.333
Yep, pure plastic...
00:15:32.208 --> 00:15:33.416
Oh, thanks!
00:15:35.083 --> 00:15:36.833
But I still can’t stand you...
00:16:30.833 --> 00:16:31.958
BITCH!!!
00:16:51.791 --> 00:16:53.458
Motherfucker!
00:17:52.708 --> 00:17:58.166
That innocent girl threatened to report you,
and you followed her to take justice in your own hands.
00:17:58.375 --> 00:17:59.583
Which subway line is that?
00:18:01.166 --> 00:18:03.333
I don't know, …I think there is no subway.
00:18:03.541 --> 00:18:05.875
- And you say she’s not dead?
- I can’t talk about that.
00:18:05.875 --> 00:18:06.916
I don’t want to know.
00:18:07.166 --> 00:18:09.833
They took her to the hospital in a catatonic state.
00:18:11.208 --> 00:18:16.416
I wanted to question her this morning, but she oddly
disappeared. No one knows where she is.
00:18:16.625 --> 00:18:17.458
Where she is?
00:18:18.250 --> 00:18:18.916
Vanished!!!
00:18:19.750 --> 00:18:21.000
But she will appear...
00:18:21.500 --> 00:18:26.416
and when she does, have no doubt about it,
she will testify against you.
00:19:02.541 --> 00:19:04.625
We've been very happy together, haven't we?
00:19:05.250 --> 00:19:08.916
But now, you have to go away for a bit.
You won’t be safe here.
00:19:09.916 --> 00:19:15.041
Live at night, when they can’t see you,
...and above all, don’t be so vengeful.
00:19:15.416 --> 00:19:17.000
It’s not good for you to get into trouble.
00:19:25.083 --> 00:19:26.458
We’ll meet again!
00:19:54.125 --> 00:19:55.875
This will do you good.
Distributor: Pragda Films
Length: 21 minutes
Date: 2021
Genre: Narrative
Language: Spanish / English subtitles
Grade: College, Adults
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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