Happy Sad (film)

After the tragic death of his wife Sandra, emotionally blocked firefighter Marcos becomes unable to identify emotions in others, starting a treatment with help from his daughter Lola and the psychologist Luna.^[1][2]

The film was produced by Arcadia Motion Pictures and Samarcanda Films alongside Noodles Production, and it had the participation of TV3 and Movistar+.^[4] It was lensed by Albert Pascual, who used an ARRI Alexa Mini with Cooke S2/S3 lenses.^[5] Shooting locations included Madrid and Pamplona.^[3][6]

The film was presented at the Seville European Film Festival on 11 November 2018.^[7] Distributed by Alfa Pictures, it was released theatrically in Spain on 16 November 2018.^[8]

Alfonso Rivera of Cineuropa wrote that the film "could have flown so much higher and gone so much further in its commitment to defend living life to the fullest".^[9]

Roger Salvans Borràs of Fotogramas rated the film 3 out of 5 stars, positively citing its "stupendous" cast, while negatively mentioning some overly forced plot twists.^[10]

Javier Ocaña of El País assessed that the "constant drifts in the film's personality end up eroding a good initial idea" that "falls apart to a great extent in [the film's] penultimate stretch".^[11]

Sergio F. Pinilla of Cinemanía rated the film 3½ out of 5 stars underscoring that "Cormenzana unveils his emotional cards with a stellar cast" in the verdict.^[8]

• List of Spanish films of 2018