High-speed mixture of black comedy, thriller and socially- committed drama. Victoria Abril plays (impressively) the role of Gloria Duque, an alcoholic prostitute. She was once happy but since her husband, a bull-fighter, has been in coma, she has to fight to survive. In Mexico City she becomes involved in a violent conflict between drug dealers and agents of the DEA, an American organisation to combat drugs. During the fight, it is the hitman Eduardo who spares Gloria’s life. Gloria gets hold of a list with the names of companies that are involved with laundering money. With this sensitive information, she travels back to her home in Madrid. There she is only able to find a place to stay with her striking mother-in-law Doña Julia. Doña Julia, a militant communist for years, tries to get Gloria off the drink and to motivate her to find a real job. In Mexico there is however another Doña, Doña Amelia, who has other plans with Gloria. Doña Amelia is at the head of a criminal organisation and sets a professional killer on Gloria’s trail, because Gloria uses the list to blackmail Doña Amelia’s contacts. The film jumps with ease from one action to another and remains unpredictable until the end. Director Diaz Yanes has even managed to make the most strange situations credible.
