If you have been toBarcelona, you are unlikely to recognise it in this film, set in a working-class district of the city where the poor mingle with illegal, unskilled immigrants. Everyone needs to make a living including our hero – yes, he is a hero – Uxbal, played magnificently by Javier Bardem (for which he received best actor award atCannes).

Uxbal already knows at the beginning of the film that he is going to die of terminal cancer and so he is focussed on providing for his two children who have no-one else to rely on. Their mother, Marambra, is bipolar and unable to look after them properly. Uxbal’s efforts to make things right inevitably end up thwarted and moments of lightness are quickly passed over again by dark clouds. Nevertheless, his stoicism admirably carries us through each glimmer of hope to the next one and the demonstration of his telepathic powers also allow us to feel that there is hope in a world beyond this.

Biutiful is a dark drama but for all that still beautiful.