Miguel (Javier Mendo) is only 14, but has already taken on countless responsibilities. His mother, Carmen, is unemployed and emotionally unstable, so Miguel does the housework, sells what he can and shoplifts when he has to. When social services comes calling, Miguel, preferring freedom at all costs to state assistance, flees. He winds up staying with Carmen’s ex and befriends the proprietor of a bar. Meanwhile, Carmen has disappeared.

Anchored in a heartrending, brave, seemingly artless performance from Mendo, this third fiction feature from Spain’s Alberto Morais is an arresting drama about youth in peril and the vagaries of a family in which traditional roles have become unnervingly blurred.