The Avocado

Raul (Toneey Acevedo) is an elderly man who works as a cleaner in a large, anonymous office building. Rosa (Tina D'Marco) works alongside him. They regularly eat lunch together. We get the feeling that they have been doing this for more years than they can remember. Today, Rosa has decided to add a bit of avocado to the food. It's an exotic ingredient in otherwise plain fare and they agree that it adds something special.

For a long time, Raul has been working up to asking Rosa on a date. Unbeknownst to him, she has been working up to saying yes. But will it happen? Will they get it right? Do they still remember the steps in this dance?

The story seems simple, quietly beautiful, destined to bring some light into the autumn of their lives. But something is about to happen that will throw everything else off course.

It's the abruptness of this incident, when it comes, that is shocking. It breaks the narrative, throwing everything else off course, even if we might start thinking differently about an earlier event, wondering if it was a precursor to this. Even the avocado takes on a new meaning. Something that happens every day is experienced differently because we care about these people, because we have been gently drawn into their world, because we have invested in their future.

Modest and unassuming, brilliantly composed, El Aguacate delivers a punch to the gut. It's a film that will haunt you.