Awaking From A Dream is a very silent, bleak film, told in a straightforward manner with long, contemplative shots – an ambitious, memorable debut from Spain's Freddy Mas Franqueza. The film is tough going in terms of subject matter and all the more sad for the fact that it was apparently inspired by Franqueza's own life. A young boy is abandoned by his mother to live with his austere, grieving grandfather and when later the old man develops Alzheimer's, it's time for the boy to repay his debt. Alina is a waitress in a club in the city Valencia. She is divorced and has a little son, Marcel. Marcel is eager for his mother’s attention and tenderness, but all he ever gets from her are screams and disregard. Her lover Bruno, jazz musical, decides to take a chance in Berlin, and Alina who does’n want to be left behind drops the boy off with his grandfather Pascual who runs a hardware shop in an old village. Pascual, who has never got over the death of his wife and the departure of his daughter, is a shell of a man when Marcel comes to stay. In brief, but effective, sequences, we see this pair of damaged souls bring each other back from the brink before the film cuts to the present day. Years later, when Marcel turns twenty-one, he thinks that the time to live by his own is arrived. He´s got plans with his girl friend and wants to leave his home. But at the time Pascual has turned old and starts showing the symptoms of disease that will affect dramatically. Marcel will have to postpone his plans in order to take care of his grandfather and then he will live unexpected moments and a strong emotional travel to Berlin.