The Dead Mother

About the movie

Ismael Lopez, a petty criminal, shoots and kills a painting restorer during a bungled burglary, and shoots her daughter as well. Twenty years later, and the daughter Leire has been left mute and with a mental age of a child, spending most of her time in a mental home. A chance meeting between Leire and Ismael, who now works in a bar, leads Ismael to think that she still might be able to recognize him, and turn him in to the police. With the help of his girlfriend Maite, he kidnaps Leire and chains her to the bed in his house. He is unable to kill her, however, and instead asks the mental home for a ransom for her return. Whilst a prisoner, though, Leire and Ismael grow closer and closer through his attempts to make her laugh and their mutual love for chocolate.—Jonathan Broxton