Yo, también is the newest movie by Antonio Naharro and Álvaro Pastor, starring Pablo Pineda and Lola Dueñas.

Plot:
Daniel (Pablo Pineda) just finished university and starts to work at the Department of Social Services, where he falls in love with his co-worker Laura (Lola Dueñas). All very normal – except that Daniel has Down syndrome. That means that he has to fight for acceptance and normality every day.

Yo, también is a fine movie with a few flaws (especially with the pacing) that you’ll gladly overlook for “the bigger picture”. Its story was modeled after Pablo Pineda’s own life – which is impressive – and it’s told with heart, sensitivity and a good dose of humor.

What they did really well was capture the difficulty people with Down syndrome (or mental handicaps in general) have achieving some kind or normal life, especially when it comes to love and partnership. They contrast the struggles nicely with Daniel and Laura’s relationship – where somebody with Down syndrome is in love withe someone who doesn’t have it – and Pedro (Daniel Parejo) and Luisa (Lourdes Naharro), who both have the syndrome.

But all of them struggle with the same basic problem: People assume that mentally challenged people don’t have needs or even if they have them, they don’t have the ability to decide how to act on them.

That is a difficult question, as anyone who knows handicapped people can tell you, and one that is handled nicely and with a lot respect in this film.

There are quite a few scenes that were set in a dance studio, primarily for people with Down syndrome (though not exclusively so, I think), which I really enjoyed. The dancing we got to see was wonderful and made for a good loosening in between. And the music was generally very nice.

They found good actors. I was afraid that Lola Dueñas would stand out a bit in a cast comprised of mostly amateur actors, but she really didn’t. They were all excellent.

As I said before, most of the problems were with the pacing, but it was never too bad.

Summarising: worth seeing.