David Trueba’s Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed gets its title from The Beatles song Strawberry Fields Forever. The film opens with Antony San Roman lecturing his students about the importance of friendship as they read aloud the lyrics of teh Beatles song Help!

A Beatles fanatic, San Roman sets off in his tiny green car to deliver a message to John Lennon, who is in Almeria, south of Spain, shooting a film. En route, he picks up two young hitchhikers, each of them running away from something.

San Roman is a jumble of good traits: generous, perceptive and endearingly hopeful. Throughout the journey, he seizes every opportunity to teach the kids a life lesson. From proper syntax to the importance of standing up for oneself, his wise words are often received with cynical, teenage eyes. But ultimately through him, they realise that unrealistic dreams can see the light. 

Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed is set against the backdrop of Fransisco Franco’s iron-fisted rule, a reality that Trueba contrasts with a woozy Spanish countryside, lending the film a dreamy, idealistic frame. 

Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed will screen again on Sunday, 23 November, at 10:30am at Galaxy Cinema. 

Check the full programme of the Panorama of the European Film and our recommendations.

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