Weekend films

"Volveréis', when separation becomes a party

At the cinema, the bittersweet comedy by Jonás Trueba. Also among the new releases is 'Ballerina' with Ana de Armas

14 June 2025

3' min read

Can one really celebrate a moment of separation? This is the question at the heart of 'Volveréis', a new film by Jonás Trueba and one of the most interesting new releases at the cinema this weekend.

Son of Fernando Trueba (director of films such as 'Belle époque', 'La niña dei tuoi sogni' or 'La nostra storia'), Jonás has already directed several feature films in the past, but it is with this new work that he may finally come close to his father's fame.

Set in Madrid, the film stars Ale and Alex, a couple who have been together for fifteen years.

When they decide to separate, having chosen to do so by mutual agreement, they think of doing something rather unusual: organising a separation party. To celebrate the end of their relationship they invite friends and relatives, but everyone is convinced that it is just a joke.

“Volveréis” e gli altri film della settimana
Photogallery4 foto

She is a film director, he is an actor: both work in the film industry and, while planning the party, they are also in the process of making a film.

Starting from an undoubtedly curious subject, this feature film speaks of a possible return: "Volveréis" is in fact a film about memories and melancholies, themes to be dealt with while there are boxes to be emptied and decisions to be made. What emerges from that shared past clashes with the feelings of a present that is being created before their eyes and also, perhaps, with the possibility of a new beginning, decidedly unexpected and capable of questioning the certainties built up over years of life together.

A film of contradictions

Celebrating a separation is not the only contradiction in a film that reasons about the often paradoxical meaning of being together, through numerous oxymora and moments in which the directing style also mixes very different registers.

Somewhere between existential drama and gentle comedy, 'Volveréis' suffers from a few too many didacticisms, but the writing is effective and the character building just right.

The meta-cinematic side has superfluous moments (the line dividing reality and fiction is not so sharp), while those concerning love and feelings are truly brilliant and original: Trueba does not lapse into rhetoric, but uses irony, resulting in a bittersweet film that also manages to amuse in some passages.

Good performances by the two protagonists Itsaso Arana and Vito Sanz.

Dancer

Very different tones are to be found in the action 'Ballerina', directed by Len Wiseman and starring Ana de Armas.

The first cinematic spin-off of the 'John Wick' saga, 'Ballerina' fits in between the third and fourth films of the franchise and features Eve Macarro as the main character, a lethal assassin, trained in hand-to-hand combat and the use of firearms. Her goal is to take revenge for a terrible loss she suffered as a child.

Despite a few noteworthy sequences, this film, with the exception of those truly spectacular moments, suffers from a narrative that is trivial to say the least and incapable of holding the viewer's attention throughout its more than two-hour duration.

It lacks the dramaturgical tightness of the last 'John Wick' chapters (the fourth, above all, is the best in the franchise) and the rhythm works in alternating phases. Ana de Armas is in part, but not enough to significantly lift the fortunes of a film that is only convincing in places.