“The men here are good for two things,” Mami counsels an exasperated dancer before she heads back onto the floor. “They’re good for nothing, and they’re good for money.” The female dancers at Mexico City’s Cabaret Barba Azul work hard for the money; Laura Herrero Garvin’s superb observational doc treats them right.

One woman, at least, doesn’t dance. Grey-haired, pouchily cardigan-clad and almost perennially stead, Doña Olga is the “Mami” of the title: the custodian of the ladies’ dressing room, but rather more crucially, the guardian of the ladies themselves. A jaded but quietly sympathetic confidante, as quick with brisk maternal advice as she is with a fresh roll of toilet paper, she’s been through everything they have and more.

The intimate but unsentimental rapport between Mami and her charges — one anxious new arrival in particular — sets the tone for Herrero Garvin’s purely and patiently observational film, which unfolds mostly in the scuffed, fluorescent-lit confines of the dressing room, but never feels airless or exercise-like.

Guy Lodge, Variety

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Film Title : La Mami
Language : espanja
Director : Laura Herrero Garvin
Year : 2019
Length : 79
Age limit : K12
Format : DCP
Cinematographer : Laura Herrero Garvin
Editing : Lorenzo Mora Salazar, Ana Pfaff
Producer : Laura Imperiale, Patricia Franquesa, Laia Zanon
Production Company : Gadea Films, Cacerola Films

Screenings :
Ma 27.1. klo 17.30, Kinopalatsi 1
Fri 31.1. at 21.30, Kinopalatsi 1
Sat 1.2. at 19.00, Kino Regina