Shakespeare and Victor Hugo´s Intimacies

Yulene Olaizola literally stays close to home in her feature-length debut, which won both the audience award and the press prize at the Mexican FICCO festival. The title refers to the intersection of two streets in Mexico City where the home of Rosa Carbajal, the filmmaker's grandmother, is located. Through conversations with the occupants of the house, some live-in cleaning people, her grandma's brother, and some old acquaintances, the story of Jorge Riosse gradually unfolds. Riosse was a disturbed young man who rented a room in the house for seven years. The film is also a portrait of Rosa, who unashamedly gives her granddaughter and the viewer a tour of her home and her past. Jorge Riosse lived a withdrawn life, shutting out a past that he rarely spoke about. Still, an intimate friendship developed between him and Rosa. This man in his early twenties was a virtuoso guitarist and singer (demonstrated by some cassette tapes recorded by Rosa), a talented writer (Rosa cherishes Riosse's poems), and a skilled painter: the house is filled with his work, all portraits of women. But bit by bit, this ingeniously constructed tale also brings out Riosse's darker side, from his repressed homosexuality and his struggle with schizophrenia to some disconcerting discoveries after his death in 1993.