29 de Febrero

When Tomas (Barea) wakes up, the first thing he sees is a note, handwritten by the bed simply stating, “Today is my day”. However, it takes a minute and a call from his far-flung daughter for him to realise that today is indeed his day, it’s his birthday.

How old? Tomas can’t remember, however, he does feel the need for celebration. But while looking to round up a headcount for a party that afternoon, it becomes clear that when it comes to a man of Tomas’ age, time and life have almost fully caught up with them, and finding party guests isn’t as simple as it used to be.

Tomas's birthday, as the title suggests, is on one of the rarest days in the calendar, and writer/director Diego Fandos’ beautifully poignant Spanish short film 29 de Febrero is an equally rare blend of emotion and drama through adroit storytelling that stays with you long after the fact. Beginning with the possibility of witnessing a jubilant celebration of life, we soon discover that Tomas’ has become one of obvious and perpetual loneliness; the man and his faculties are no longer what they once were. Names come back to him slowly, if at all, and those he does remember have now passed on. It’s a sobering depiction of the harshness of growing well past your best years.

But what allows the film to balance itself with a countering sense of hope and belief is that we also get to enjoy the moments where we can see that there is life in the old dog yet, glimmers of the man Tomas was in his prime, and while there are certain things he struggles to grasp, there are others that will stay with him until the day he dies, such as his long standing feud with Arturo (Equileor), who is the only one to visit on his special day, neither of them remembering the reason for their anamosity, but unwilling to let it go all the same.

It’s a deftly written piece that can make you smile and break your heart simultaneously, with the deeply saddening frailty imbued into Tomas from the lead Ramón Barea right at the heart of it, and while completely captivating to watch on their own, the introduction of Eguileor’s Arturo makes for an enthralling back-and-forth between two stubborn mules in the films second half, before ending with a brilliantly sorrowful but touching conclusion.

Increíble. Fantastico. Hermosa. All of these words are fitting for a film of 29 de Febrero’s calibre, a tale about the harsh realities of age mixed with the idea of still being in charge of one’s destiny until the very end.