London Film Festival 2026 Review: Flies – “A warm, naturalistic and poignant film.”

Mexican filmmaker Fernando Eimbcke’s black-and-white comedy-drama Flies is a gentle study in compassion and the effect people can have on our lives, however briefly. Co-written with screenwriter Vanessa Garnica, the plot is simple and light on exposition. It’s all about the characters and the situations they find themselves in.

The opening could be a comedy short in itself. Olga, an older, solitary woman (Teresita Sánchez, The Chambermaid ) is being menaced by a fly buzzing around her apartment. She looks weary as she opens the window, letting in the noise of the Mexico City streets below, it still doesn’t leave. In the end, she blasts it with toxic levels of bug spray.

Sánchez is wonderful as Olga, wearing her disdain for pretty much everything on her face. She’s bored of daytime TV and can hear the neighbours having loud sex in the apartment above. Preferring solitude, she barely exchanges a hello to a passing resident on the street and complains about the price of food at her local café.

But when she has to pay for surgery for an ingrown toenail, she has to take in a temporary lodger. Olga may be a grump, but she’s no fool. Knowing that the residents in her building sometimes sublet to the relatives of patients at the large hospital opposite – she places an ad and rips down the other ads to boost her chances.

Sure enough, she gets a quick taker. Tulio (Hugo Ramirez) is from out of town, in need of a room while his wife is being treated for cancer. Olga joylessly lists off her rules and tells him she doesn’t want to hear about his sick relative. He moves in, hiding his adorable nine-year-old son Cristian (first timer Bastian Escobar). The father-son dynamic is a delight to watch, particularly in a scene when they try to send signals to the hospital using a torch. Tulio tries to give the kid a sense of continuity and normality at an incredibly difficult time. Bastian Esobar’s performance is upbeat and curious without being precocious

Tulio and Cristian can’t avoid the watchful glare of their landlady for long. Olga isn’t charmed by the kid, treating him with about as much fondness as she has for the buzzing fly. Kids aren’t allowed in the hospital, and Tulio has to take some work, so Cristian has to fend for himself a lot of the time.

Cinematographer Maria Secco gives us a child’s eye view of big city, with low angles capturing Cristian’s wanders as he tries various ways to gain access into the hospital, including trying to get the help of empathetic hospital porter Isaac (Enrique Arreola), and comically bribing the woman on the admissions desk with a stolen trinket. But he still can’t find where his mum is being treated.

Cristian finds an outlet for his restless energy in his favourite retro arcade game, Cosmic Invaders, which his father also uses to try to explain the invasive nature of his mother’s illness. But he’s not ready to grasp that yet, he wants to blast aliens. Eventually, Olga begins to soften to the kid and his situation. They begin to form a bond and Olga even cracks a smile and indulges the kid in a game of Cosmic Defenders, which is a little overused as motif by the end, but provides some comedic bonding moments for the pair. The curmudgeonly older women being softened by a kid dynamic is reminiscent of Central Station, although this is a much less dark film.

Olga’s shift in attitude also unlocks some hints about her past. She’s dealing with her own loss and tries to help the kid get into the hospital to visit his mum. A joyful scene with Olga and Cristian dancing is cut comically short, before it becomes twee. This bitter-sweet moment is key to the film’s tone. Embicke never strays into mawkish sentimentality. Flies is a warm, naturalistic and poignant film about transience, loss, and the brief respite that comes from unexpected connection.

Flies screened at LFF 2026.