By focusing on the lives of one struggling family in Montevideo, Mexican-based director Rodrigo Plá and his regular screenwriter Laura Santullo (La zona, The Desert Within) dramatize powerful universal truths in The Delay. Garment factory worker Maria (Roxana Blanco, in a stunning performance) labors to keep her cramped hearth and home together while raising kids, moonlighting with other work and handling her 80-year-old father Agustin (the unforgettable Carlos Vallarino), whose senility and habit for getting lost on the streets is becoming a major problem. One day, when Maria feels like she’s reached her limit, she makes a rash, fateful decision that carries profound and possible life-altering consequences. Plá and Santullo’s film marks a striking artistic leap in a work guaranteed to trigger much discussion and possibly painful recognition.