His idle and hedonistic lifestyle barely sustained by his aristocratic family’s depleted wealth, and with a long line of creditors waiting, 51-year-old divorcé Tato (Paul Vega) does the only thing one can in such trying times: he hatches a plan to fake his mother’s death, sell the house to a developer without her knowledge, and put her in a perfect replica of her bedroom in the middle of nowhere until the end of her days. But things don’t go entirely smoothly: the replica turns out less-than-perfect, and a more ethical but less lucrative counteroffer by a heritage restoration group begins to tug at his conscience.

Writer-director Alonso Llosa uses this epic caper as a grinning satire on the housing market’s biggest (and least deserving) beneficiaries, and adds a dash of somber reflection on the social cost of get-mega-rich-quick corporate scheming and the price of redemption, making The Restoration a giddy piece of so-crazy-it-has-to-work entertainment with a touching understanding of its time and place.

"For a light comedy, La Restauración is as grounded as you can get." Alan Ng, Film Threat