Ana and Manuel

When And is left by Manuel, she can't think of anything better than replacing him with... a big dog... with a lot of fur... and a huge mouth.

A touching short film by Manuel Calvo who has won a number of awards. In it star the beautiful Elena Anaya ("Alatriste", "Lucía y el sexo", "Miguel y William", "Entre mujeres", "Lágrimas negras", "Van Helsing", "Hable con ella", "Sin noticias de Dios", "Rencor") and the charismatic Diego Martín ("Días de fútbol", "Aquí no hay quien viva", "Días de cine", "Hermanos y detectives", "Un buen día lo tiene cualquiera", "Los Borgia", "Mataharis").

Last summer I had the great idea of buying a dog.

Everything started when Manuel broke up with me.

And I couldn't think of anything better than replacing him with a big dog.

With a lot of fur

and an enormous mouth.

I have always been against having animals in the house.

It seemed cruel to the animal and unhygienic for the people.

I didn't even want to keep the turtle

that was given to Manuel for his birthday

by his co-workers.

It was big and ugly.

We had put it in the bidet for a couple of weeks.

Until I started having nightmares in which the turtle became giant

and pursued me around the entire house.

I managed to convince Manuel to leave it in the river

that flowed near the village.

We never talked about it again.

Although I knew perfectly that he would've liked to have a kitten

or a puppy, or a bird.

Maybe that was the reason, for revenge, that I decided to buy a dog.

"Now that you're not here anymore I'm buying a dog and you're not going to know."

But of course, he found out anyway.

- Should I return it?

Tiny revenge.

I was recommended to give it a name with one syllable

so that the dog can learn it easily.

I decided to name him Man.

I liked it because it was the half of "Manuel"

and it also meant "man" in English.

- Although you're only half of "Manuel", you're much more of a man than he is.

Manuel has one part of a man and another of an ox.

Why do we want that part that means nothing,

that only brings back memories and nostalgia?

In the beginning, when I walked him around the neighborhood,

I was a little ashamed to call him by his name.

But after hearing such stupid things

that other people had named their dogs, I stopped having any type of hesitation.

- Man! Come here!

- Good boy.

Man and I went out every Sunday and went to the market.

He loved it.

He spent the morning going from one place to another

behind everything that moved or drew his attention.

It reminded me that when I was with Manuel

he enjoyed teaching me all sorts of old tricks.

He made all the salesmen bargain nonstop.

He always told me that I had to bargain,

that they raised the price for the tourists but I was ashamed.

Man grew.

And although he had grown loving

after a few months living together I started to get sick of him.

He wasn't even half of what Manuel had been .

He was just a poor dog that deserved something better than living with me.

Christmas came.

And a friend of mine gave me a disk

in which one of the songs portrayed me perfectly.

It said that having a large dog when you are young and don't want to be alone

is already a sign of self-destruction.

If we were as free as we said we were

we wouldn't need dogs to replace anyone.

I felt terrible.

I played the song over and over while Man watched me

with those eyes that seemed to understand me.

I wanted to be free.

But that half of Manuel that was still with me was stopping me.

Maybe with another name it would have helped me forget him.

But it was too late to change it.

So I had to make a decision.

Like every year,

on the 24th me and my whole family went to dinner in my parents' house.

I hadn't told them about Man.

I also hadn't told them that Manuel had left me.

The dinner always ended with the exchange of the Christmas gifts.

Every year my mother made a lottery to decide who was going to give a gift to whom.

Last year I had Manuel.

I made him a wool scarf and he gave me an album full of photos.

This year I had my brother Javier.

I had bought him a cologne.

But when I was home wrapping it

I realized that that was my chance to get rid of the dog

and start a new life.

I left Man in the car during the dinner.

And when it was time to exchange the gifts I went down for him.

But in the place where I had left him

were neither my car, nor Man.

It was the second time I had my car stolen.

But the first time there was a dog inside.

The police found the car in a field a few days later.

But no trace of the dog.

I knew I should be happy for not having to worry about it anymore.

In spite of that I was sad.

Much sadder than when Manuel left me.

I put posters with Man's photo throughout the neighborhood.

There was no news for several days.

Until one morning the doorbell rang.

- Man...

- Manuel.

Manuel and Man together.

I couldn't believe it.

He told me he had just bought him that day at the flea market.

And that, although it was hard to believe,

he had had the feeling that the dog had

led him to my house.

In addition, he said he missed me

and that he wanted to be with me again.

Man immediately recognized me and started playing.

I didn't want to say anything to Manuel

and he was very surprised that the dog was so tender with me.

He said he had called him Max.

I thought it was great.

For the dog it sounded almost the same

and for me it was two-thirds of "Manuel" and part of an unknown "x"

that had made it so that all three of us were together.

Subtitles - DecemberSky

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