Modern Days
(Los días modernos)

Amelia’s social and romantic coming of age, as she discovers love, injustice, solidarity, and forgiveness, in a working-class neighborhood, in Madrid, in the ’70s.

Amelia lives with her parents and siblings. She studies at a Catholic school, with her two friends, Maru and Ana. She is secretly in love with her brother’s best friend, Chema, the baker’s son.

The Nancy doll is all the rage. Amelia feels sorry for her friend Maru, who doesn’t have one: her parents can’t afford it. Amelia comes up with a way to get the money, gathering up rags, cardboard and newspaper and bringing it to the gypsies who live in the settlement beside her neighborhood. She’s afraid to go alone, but a German woman who lives nearby, goes there every Friday to teach the children to read, so she decides to accompany her.