Casas Para Todos

Sometimes it feels like you’re watching stills, photos of ghost towns after a nuclear strike. How else could one explain the apartment buildings looking so desolate? But then we see leaves on trees moving in the wind, so we know it's a film after all. And then a man walks by, the caretaker of a residential development nobody ever got to use. He is the only living soul in the area and spends his days wandering around, exercising and sunbathing by an empty pool. Houses for All is packed with scenes like this one. There is no explicit explanation for what we are seeing, but the publicity videos of overambitious real estate megaprojects speak for themselves. Most Spaniards can barely make ends meet – let alone pay a mortgage – but the developers keep on building. It makes for bleak yet beautiful scenes of desolate roads and playgrounds overgrown with weeds, and of Spanish people living in some woods by the side of the road with all their belongings, because in spite of all the vacant housing, they can't afford to live there. The film leaves it to the viewer to judge, but really there is only one possible conclusion: if there is one country that’s really suffering from the real estate bubble, it is Spain. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)