[Film Review] The Offering (2020)

If a person doesn’t ask for forgiveness face to face, do they deserve to be forgiven? This is the question posed in the early moments of the Spanish erotic drama The Offering from director Ventura Durall. The film is a beautifully intimate portrait of regret, exploring the impact that one person can have on the rest of your life. 

In a run-down apartment building Rita (Verónica Echegui, Fortitude) is busy sensually entertaining online clients when she is interrupted by Jan (Alex Brendemühl, Transit), the founder of a company that delivers end-of-life video messages to those left behind. The two connect over their shared experiences of loss, with Jan admitting to knowing what it is like to ruin a life, which is part of the reason for the creation of his company.

As the film jumps into the future, Rita and Jan are in a marriage that seems passionate but is ultimately doomed due to the intensity of Jan’s remorse over a past relationship. With The Offering, Durall exposes the hell on earth that our decisions can cause, as Jan is haunted by the torture of what he did to the woman from his past, clinging to the concept that whatever we do to others we do to ourselves. This is an interesting theme that one cannot help but agree with as we see Jan attempt to reconnect with Violeta (Anna Alarcón, A Thief’s Daughter), the woman whose memory holds him captive. 

As she attempts a bit of security in her relationship with Jan, Rita visits Violeta, expressing her angst at her husband’s obsession with the woman, a fact which Violeta quickly refuses, citing her own family as proof that she has long since moved on from Jan. Through flashbacks we see a young Violeta and Jan as they connect and fall in love during a steamy summer. They run off together, professing deep affection while planning their future together. These memories are often conflated between Jan’s internal struggle and Violeta’s unwelcomed recollection. She seems to want to deny the weight of their relationship, but whatever pain Jan inflicted on her has not disappeared.

As the characters in The Offering connect, the emotions that were once forsaken refuse to be ignored, and the narrative hurdles toward, depending on your interpretation, a tragic culmination of a lifelong journey. 

The story is accessible while feeling slightly dangerous, as each one of us has surely what if’d our way through a chat with an ex, or at least looked them up to see what they’ve amounted to. The scars of past relationships may be the canvas of our lives, shaping the people we become, but they are still wounds that aren’t always healed when we move on to other lovers. The Offering highlights the beauty of love while fully acknowledging the anguish of loss.

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