Add your email and we'll match picks to the services you stream at home.

Poster for Las Meninas

Las Meninas

Seen it?

2009 | 99 min | Drama

Weeknight Watchearly rating

Why it’s a Weeknight Watch

With almost no lasting buzz and mixed reviews, it's a mixed bag. Fine if it's on; don't plan your night around it.

Based on critics, audiences, awards, box office and buzz. Details below.

Is it for you?

Who'll love it
If you count yourself among people who love a good family story and anyone who likes a story with emotional weight, this one's for you. Anyone with siblings or parents will recognize something here.
The mood
Thoughtful and character-driven.
The pace
Character-first and patient, at 1 hr 39 min.
What might put you off
  • It's in another language, so expect subtitles (or a dub).
  • Not the one if you want explosions or easy laughs.

This film is about what the routine of everyday life can do to the human mind and psyche. It also reflects on the importance of the choices we make and how limited these choices are in the first place. The plot evolves around a family of four. They live in the suburbs, in a strange villa that appears, through a complex game of mirrors, to be more like a piece of installation art than a real house. The main character, who hardly appears on screen, is the son, a man in his thirties. Suffering from asthma and eczema since childhood, he uses his condition to manipulate his parents and his sister. Thus the existence of the terrorized family turns into an endless ritual of attempting to satisfy his whims, and always on the alert for yet another one of his “health crises”. Las Meninas resembles the scattered pieces of a puzzle. It is up to the viewer to assemble them in order to form his very own picture – something that makes the film itself personal and unique.

How it earned its rating

  • CriticsBelow par

    Mixed reviews

  • AudiencesNot counted

    Not measured yet: not enough ratings

  • AwardsNot counted

    No major awards or nominations

  • Reach & staying powerBelow par

    Streaming release that reached a small audience so far; still draws a steady audience long after release

  • Buzz & cultural impactWeak

    About 863 people sought it out in the past year

Trailer

More like this

Want more like this, picked just for you? Get my picks

Cast & crew

Directed by Ihor Podolchak

  • Mykola VeresenFather
  • Liubov TymoshevskaMother
  • Hanna YarovenkoDaughter
  • Dmytro ChernyavskySon
  • Ilona ArsentievaYoung Daughter
  • Stas ArsentievYoung Son
  • Valeriya UlyanchenkoYoung Mother 1
  • Viktoriya UlyanchenkoYoung Mother 2