Perhaps the highpoint of the emerging Catalan cinema, this sensitive adaptation of Mercé Rodoreda's popular novel follows the life of a Catalan woman from the twenties through the Civil War and the early years of franquismo. Silvia Munt gives a wonderful performance in the central role of Colometa, a shopclerk whose simple, demure style hides a strong, restless spirit revealed to us in a series of voice-overs in which her true feelings are revealed. The contrast between the personal and public during the Franco years was a theme of special relevance to the Catalans, whose own culture and language was so brutally repressed at the time. Originally made for Spanish television, the film makes interesting use of elements of the tele-novella, yet the "hand of fate" which serves as the dramatic engine so often in that genre is here replaced by a firm notion of historical process. Richard Peña