Un amor

Un amor is a 2023 Spanish drama film directed by Isabel Coixet from a screenplay by Coixet and Laura Ferrero based on the novel of the same name by Sara Mesa. It stars Laia Costa and Hovik Keuchkerian.

Plot
Freelance translator Nat settles in the countryside village of La Escapa, finding a hostile environment and a cruel landlord keen on sexist microagressions. Neighbor Andreas, locally dubbed as "the German", awkwardly offers Nat free home repairs in exchange for sexual penetration. Nat, despite early reluctance, ends up accepting, paving the way for a self-consuming passion.

Production
Penned by Isabel Coixet and Laura Ferrero, the screenplay is an adaptation of the 2020 novel Un amor by Sara Mesa. The film was produced by Buena Pinta Media, Perdición Films and Monte Glauco AIE with the participation of RTVE, TV3, Movistar Plus+, ICAA, and Gobierno de La Rioja. Shooting locations in La Rioja included Nalda, Ribafrecha, and Villalobar.

Release
Un amor was presented in the official selection of the 71st San Sebastián International Film Festival on 26 September 2023, in competition for the Golden Shell. Distributed by BTeam Pictures, the film released theatrically in Spain on 10 November 2023.

Reception
Jonathan Holland of ScreenDaily wrote that the film is sometimes "redolent of Coixet's very best work, rippling outwards to touch upon some fundamental, and eternally gripping, human questions about what love is".

Guy Lodge of Variety considered the film to be a return to form for Coixet while pointing out that it is not an "obvious crowdpleasing fare", because of its "commendably complex" gender politics and its "both frank and occasionally disturbing" study of sex as social currency.

Top ten lists
The film appeared on a number of critics' top ten lists of the best Spanish films of 2023:
 * 2nd — El Español (Series & Más consensus)
 * 10th — Mondosonoro (consensus)