In the world heavily dominated by film works coming from English- speaking countries, it is, from time to time, interesting to get the feel what's going on in other areas. Spain is certainly not an unknown country regarding films, but most of its directors are too sophisticated for me. The advanced information I obtained regarding A escondidas and its "normal" duration made me dedicate the time to it.
Coming of age and out in a country with a high number of not-like- minded immigrant and refugee communities should be a basis for an intense and versatile story where different aspects of human values and understanding can be disclosed in catchy ways. In my opinion, the filmmakers here have not exploited their options in full: the tune and aims are set forth too plainly, and there are discrepancies between the pace and the use of flashbacks, often disturbing to comprehend the course of events. The choice of young actors is great, but there is a limited development of characters, many interesting benchmarks remain in-process until the end.
But as I mentioned, I am not among the target audience, and for certain juveniles, it is apparently a good work to follow. However, the possible audience could be limited by the fact that it has been proclaimed as a LGBT film, although it is far from being a primary topic and mode of expression here.