The life of a maid and her employer in the Dominican Republic- Film review

Film student Fanny Leyvraz reviews "Tu Y Yo" - directed by Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada and which was shown at Visions du Réel earlier this week.

It took two years to create this faithful documentary of two women living together. Four people were included in the creation of “Tu Y Yo”. Both writers and directors, the two young artists Natalia Cabral and Oriol Estrada made their first long feature film together in the Dominican Republic. In front of their camera, there is “you and me”: Francisca Pérez De Sosa and Paula Lebrón. One is a wealthy, retired, educated woman who is employing the other. The employee is a young and hard-working woman, very poor and illiterate.

Frames of coexistence The retired rich woman isn't totally idle, she has a big garden on her roof-top balcony, and she likes to sew. Even if she spends some of her time criticising the work of her employee, she does appreciate having company to share the day with. It's the same with the young woman, even if she can be fed up with the demands of her employer, in the end she is grateful to be with someone rather than completely alone. As different as they may be, both share the same question in their minds, how can one overcome solitude when one shares a living space? How does one get along with people from opposite social classes (especially in the Dominican Republic where the differences are extreme and problematic). The film, using different scenes of their daily routine, shows us that they both need each each other in a special sort of way, even when it's not easy. Even if the audience logically sides with the housemaid, ever so silent, always working, and respectful compared to the one giving her orders, needy, controlling and sometimes - actually most of the time - making inconsistent demands.

The movie has perhaps too gentle a pace, with its too many lengthy quiet shots and a total absence of music (except the bawling of the novella TV-show). This can somewhat boring, but the frame is always interesting, and the vision du "réel” it offers is quite well achieved and the camera captures with authenticity, the everyday life of this heterogeneous duo.