In the near future, where it is possible to buy and sell experiences, Lucía (Adriana Ugarte) decides to sell some of her experiences to enrich herself. Surrounded by luxuries that we all wish we had, she discovers where her own balance lies and gets the audience to think: what's worth more? Money or experiences?

In Spain, Millennials have suffered the economic crisis more than anyone.

And who do they blame? The Banks.

So how can a bank talk to a generation that's cynical about banks? By avoiding the media channels used by banks and going to where millennials love to be: the cinema.

The film is directed by one of the most important Spanish directors, winner of a Goya (Spain's Oscars) and starring one of Spain’s biggest young stars (known as the Almodóvar girl and also nominated for a Goya).

1 EXT. DAY – WEDDING GARDEN

Black.

LUCÍA

How much?

MALE VOICE

Probably about a million

LUCÍA

Do it then.

We open on black.

Subjective POV. We’re the eyes of someone. In front of us is an outdoor garden decorated for a wedding. We move in slowly. Elegant looking people are seated either side of an aisle. Everyone is looking at us. They smile at us and wave. We look to our left and see we’re escorted by an impeccably dressed gentleman in his fifties. He smiles at us happily. He is gripping onto our arm. He’s the FATHER of the bride. At the end of this aisle a good-looking young man is waiting for us, slim in his morning coat. He is the GROOM. So we are the eyes of the bride. We are carrying a bouquet. We continue moving towards the rustic platform, getting closer and closer to the groom. But despite getting closer, we can’t manage to make out his face. In fact, even when we are only a few metres away we notice that his face is completely blurry. We turn towards our father only to find that his face is blurry too. In fact everyone we can see has a face without features. The groom reaches out tenderly.

GROOM

(unintelligible)

You look beautiful my love!

But his voice is hardly understandable. We are a short step away from the groom when his body begins to fade, along with all the guests, who end up completely disappearing. Now nobody is left in the garden and our body, the bride’s body, disappears too.

Black

2 INT. DAY - PENTHOUSE 2

LUCÍA’s eyes open. In her thirties, she wakes up in a double bed. Alone. She stretches out her arm to the other side of the bed, as if she’s missing someone. She gets up. She’s feeling confused. Lost. In front of her a screen says Good Morning. Some gentle rock music is playing in the room. She opens a drawer in her bedside table in a mechanical kind of way. There she finds a small, red notebook. She picks it up and leafs through it. It is full of handwritten notes. On the last page we see written: “Wedding with Carlos. I was married on 23rd June in the country house in Santillana del Mar. We had rain in the afternoon, but it was unforgettable”. She ponders on the words written there, as if she wanted to retain the information. She gets up and opens the shutters by remote control. The sunshine floods through the large bedroom. Through the picture window we can see a rural landscape. Dull. The house is a long way from any large town. From anywhere. Lucía puts on a dressing gown and leaves her room. She goes up some stairs. At the top we find a large,luxurious home. Several people are cleaning it and tidying up. Two women and a man dressed in black.

3 INT. DAY – SITTING ROOM

Lucía goes into a large sitting room. A woman dressed as a maid talks to her, smiling.

MAID

Good morning madam.

LUCÍA

Good morning.

MAID

(pointing to a table)

This morning several parcels have arrived from the boutique in town.

LUCÍA

Good. I’m a bit hungry.

Various boxes and elegant bags are sitting on the table in the sitting room.

Lucía goes to the table and quickly looks what’s in them: luxurious dresses and some jewellery. This is just run of the mill for her, there’s no excitement involved.

4 INT. DAY - KITCHEN

Lucía sits at a table laid out for breakfast. The man dressed in black brings her a couple of breakfast dishes. He’s an attractive man. She smiles at him.

LUCÍA

Thank you very much.

Lucía looks at the cup of coffee and the sugar bowl. For a second she’s not sure what goes into what. She’s about to pour the coffee into the sugar when she finally realises it’s the other way around. As she has her breakfast Lucía looks through the small handwritten notebook. She reads some pages. There are some notes about trips with Carlos: to Japan, the United States, Europe, Mexico… Suddenly the telephone rings. It’s her friend MARÍA. Now we see her on a screen on the table. A woman the same age as her.

MARÍA

At last. I was really worried about you,

you’ve been in the shower for over three months.

LUCÍA

What d’you mean?

MARÍA

Last time we spoke, you hung up on me saying: “I’m going to have a shower, I’ll call you when I’ve finished” and I’m still waiting.

LUCÍA

(smiling)

Sorry, I’ve been a bit tied up. How’s it going in the gallery?

MARÍA

Utterly boring without you. Why don’t you come back?

Lucía laughs at María’s request.

MARÍA

What are you up to?

LUCÍA

I’m at home.

MARÍA

At home? you mean in your palace…

LUCÍA

(looking at all the people dressed in black working in the house)

It is big, but not much use to me…

It’s impossible to find a quiet corner to yourself.

The man dressed in black picks up the bags sitting on the table and takes them away. Lucía sees him looking at them disapprovingly.

MARÍA

(sarcastically)

That’s what you get from having servants living with you, looking after you like a queen. A problem I don’t have.

How’s the family?

LUCÍA

Fine...As ever.

MARÍA

How about Carlos? Travelling all over the world?

LUCÍA

(trying to remember)

Ummm... yes.

MARÍA

Hey, why don’t we have lunch together and have a catch-up? Shall we?

LUCÍA

Today?

MARÍA

Come on, come into town. I get a break between two and three. In case you can’t remember getting a break is having time off from “that thing” they call work.

LUCÍA

(jocular)

You fool, I haven’t had time in the last three years to forget what work is.

MARÍA

I should hang up before I get caught. See you in Piscis at two.

They hang up.

5 INT. DAY - BEDROOM 5

Lucía is finishing getting dressed. We see her squeezed into one of the dresses that arrived today. At the same time she’s checking her bank account on a wall-mounted screen. On the bank’s website we can see that in just a few months the money in her account has gone down considerably. The irregular graph shows large deposits but also huge expenses in the last year. Lucía looks quite worried.

6 INT. DAY - CORRIDOR/ROOM. SERVICE

Lucía is going towards the front door. From the corridor she hears a baby crying. Through an open bedroom door at the end of the corridor she sees the housekeeper and butler are trying to calm the baby down. The maid cuddles the baby lovingly. When the man realises Lucía is there he looks embarrassed.

LUCÍA

That child looks as if he has a temperature. Take him to the doctor’s, you can make up your hours later.

Smiling Lucía tries to downplay the situation. Outside a modern taxi is waiting for her.

7 EXT. DAY - MOUNTAINS TOWN

The modern car drives along a road that winds around the mountain. This road leads down to a large coastal town.

8 INT. DAY - TAXI

Lucía is sitting in the back of this large electric car. The taxi now goes through the town. Lucía stares thoughtfully through the window. Suddenly she looks for Carlos in the contacts on her phone and calls him. We hear Carlos’ phone ringing. But no one picks it up. Suddenly the young girl sees something outside. A modern building with geometric lines.

LUCÍA

Stop here!

The car stops in front of an elegant handsome building. Lucía gets out of the car and walks towards this large building. A sign on the glass door says: LETEOS

9 INT. DAY – RECEPTION CORPORATION

Lucía goes to the reception desk. On a large screen a young girl talks to her.

CORPORATION GIRL

Hello, Mrs Duerto.

How nice to see you again so soon. Do you want to buy or sell an experience?

LUCÍA

Sell.

CORPORATION GIRL

Do you have an appointment?

LUCÍA

No.

CORPORATION GIRL

Doctor Molina, isn't it?

LUCÍA

Yes.

CORPORATION GIRL

(pointing to a bench)

Please have a seat.]

LUCÍA

Thanks.

Lucía sits on the nearby bench.

10 INT DAY – CUBICLE

We see through a small window close by a woman of about 60 in a cubicle. We find out she’s sitting in a wheel chair. She’s facing a screen. The screen switches on. Facing her is the image of the same girl who greeted Lucía.

CORPORATION GIRL

Mrs González, these are the experiences

which match your request.

Several windows open in the lower part of the screen. In each one we see the POV of someone surfing. The woman

presses on one of the images.

MRS. GONZÁLEZ

(to herself)

Surfing in the Pacific...

CORPORATION GIRL

It belonged to an Australian surfer.

MRS. GONZÁLEZ

(nostalgic)

I was also a good surfer. But I never went to Hawaii.

The woman places her index and middle fingers on the screen. It’s the way to pay.

CORPORATION GIRL

Here’s your experience. Surf in Pineline

A mechanical arm appears and moves towards her head. A light comes on pointing to her temple while the woman relaxes. The overhead light in the room goes off.

WE RETURN TO:

11 INT. DAY – CORPORATION RECEPTION

Lucía is lost in her own thoughts. Distracted. The receptionist’s voice breaks in energetically.

RECEPCIONIST

Mrs Duerto, Dr. Molina is waiting for you.

12 INT. DAY – CORPORATION CORRIDOR

Lucía goes down the corridor. On either side of it we see more cubicles. In one we see an OLD MAN who is receiving another bought experience.

CORPORATION GIRL

Here is your experience.

Being a dancer in the Rio carnival

The man relaxes, shutting his eyes. Low lighting. On the screen we appreciate the colourful, vivacious scene of the Rio carnival from a completely subjective POV. We are the eyes of a dancer.

13 INT. DAY – DOCTOR’S CONSULTING ROOM

At the end of the corridor Dr Molina is waiting for Lucía at the door of his consulting room. He’s wearing a suit. He seems to be puzzled, but he manages to be polite. Lucía sits on a stool opposite him.

DOCTOR

So? Is there something wrong?

LUCÍA

No. I’m here to sell.

DOCTOR

Lucía, you were here yesterday.

It would be wise to wait three days.

After yesterday, it's normal

for you to feel confused and tired.

LUCÍA

I feel fine.

DOCTOR

Maybe you do….but eliminating such established experiences from your memory the body needs time to mend the broken connections. I advise you not to sell today. Your extraction rate has been too high these last two months.

Lucía stares at the doctor. She’s not going to accept No for an answer. The doctor finally gives in.

DOCTOR

Let me see what we have that is low risk.

The doctor switches on his console and this activates a mechanism that is folded in Lucía’s stool. It’s a robotic arm that gets close to Lucía’s face until it settles next to her temple. It starts to scan the area. We see hundreds of cells on the nearby screen. In every one we see images with a subjective POV. These are experiences found in Lucía’s memory.

DOCTOR

I'm going to avoid your recent past.

We've extracted so much from that area

that you risk losing touch with reality.

If you lose too many pieces of a puzzle, you may be unable to place the ones you have left. You could end up suffering agnosia

We cannot make out the details in these cells but we can see that a lot of them are grey, without any image, empty. We see that under each one there are a number of stars. Some have 1 or 2, others up to 5 stars. The doctor turns a wheel on his desk which makes the menu with the cells scroll down. He’s going back in time. We see that the more we go back in time the scanner arm gets a bit closer to the back of her neck. Now there are less empty cells.

DOCTOR

I'm around your eighteenth birthday. I have several 2 and 3 star scenes. We only found two, and you sold the last one yesterday.

LUCÍA

(firmly)

I want to sell a 5 star experience.

I have a lot of expenses.

The doctor is surprised by Lucía’s forcefulness.

DOCTOR

Lucía, we only found two, and you sold the last one yesterday.

And he continues going through the experiences until he finds one with four stars. He pauses and enlarges this one on the screen.

DOCTOR

I've got a 4 star one here. It's a memory

of your first boyfriend.

LUCÍA

How much?

DOCTOR

It's quite a complete experience. Teenage passion, rebelling against your parents, running away..It's probably worth a quarter of a million.

Lucía turns towards the screen. It doesn’t seem much money to her. She looks at these images, remembering this teenage time nostalgically. Downcast and annoyed she looks at the doctor. Lucía behaves like someone with a really heavy addiction.

LUCIA

Do it.

The doctor activates various gadgets, ready to extract this experience from Lucía’s memory. Suddenly she moves away from the machine.

LUCIA

Wait!

Lucía takes the little red notebook from her bag, looks for the last page that’s empty. We can clearly see that it’s practically full of notes. She gets a pen. She gets ready to write with her right hand but it feels strange. She tries with her left hand and that also feels funny. She takes the pen with her right hand again, takes a deep breath and writes:

Luis, my first boyfriend.

I started going out with Luis in my third year of Bachillerato. We were 17. We ran off together to Seville. My parents found out and punished me for half the school year.

Lucía closed the notebook and went back to sit opposite the machine. She took a deep breath and nodded to the doctor to get the machine working.

ON THE SCREEN WE SEE:

14 INT. NIGHT – CONCERT HALL

Subjective image.

We move forward through a dark room with strobe lights and the public’s back towards us. It’s a concert hall. Our hands reach out to separate the crowd, enabling us to make our way forward. We go towards the stage. The first few bars of a tune can be heard. Among the public, facing us, we find a group of 17 year old fans leaping up and down and cheering the band on stage. One of the boys notices we’re there and turns towards us. He gives us a lovely smile. This is Luis. He comes towards us and kisses us passionately. The boy smiles at us, radiantly. He turns towards the stage. The band is really going for it. They’re playing the same gentle rock tune that we heard when Lucía woke up in her room. We jump up and down. We dance. Suddenly something happens: the musicians’ features start to go out of focus. The music starts to sound distorted as well. We turn towards the boy who looked happily at us. But his face starts going out of focus as do the rest of the people around him. Now everyone is starting to fade away until they disappear, as does our own body. The venue’s lights go out.

Black.

15 INT. DAY – DOCTOR’S CONSULTING ROOM

Lucía opens her eyes. She wakes up stretched out on the consulting couch. The doctor is standing up, operating a strange machine.

DOCTOR

How do you feel?

LUCÍA

(sitting up)

What did you remove?

DOCTOR

You know I can’t tell you.

But I think you wrote something in your notebook…

Lucía opens the notebook. She reads that it’s about her first relationship. She tries to remember but doesn’t come up with anything. The doctor signs on the screen with his index finger and then leaves the fingerprints of his index and middle finger on the screen. Lucía’s mobile phone rings. On its screen we see: “LETEOS has given you an electronic cheque”.Lucía looks at the figure.

DOCTOR

It’s not 5 stars, but it’s not badly-paid

We see a brief expression of remorse crossing the girl’s face. Maybe the memory was worth it, but now she’s not so sure.

16 EXT. DAY – FACADE OF CORPORATION BUILDING

Lucía comes out of the building. She gets into the car. It starts up and drives towards the restaurant.

17 INT. DAY – RESTAURANT

MARÍA is sitting at a table in the corner of the restaurant. She looks serene. She seems more serious than Lucía. She’s checking her bank account on her mobile. We can see the graph is far more regular than the one we saw on Lucía’s screen. She looks up. She sees her friend coming in. They kiss each other and hug.

CUT TO:

The two friends are having their dessert. They are laughing at a joke made by María. They’re having fun.

MARÍA

Nice dress by the way.

LUCÍA

Do you like it? It’s an Ardanuy.

MARÍA

Looks expensive.

LUCÍA

It is.

MARÍA

You’ve just sold something right?

Lucía didn’t dare look at her friend. But María knows what’s going on. Finally Lucía gives in.

LUCÍA

But it was nothing important.

MARÍA

Come on, tell me.

LUCÍA

My first boyfriend at high school.

MARÍA

How much?

LUCÍA

(whispering her secret)

250 thousand.

MARÍA

What? Really? Did you do it out of need?

I’m not criticising. Everyone sells stuff. I’ve done it…

LUCÍA

Really?

MARÍA

The odd ballroom dancing class, because I can repeat them when I want to. But something as unique as your first boyfriend….. I don’t know. I couldn’t get rid of a memory like that.

LUCÍA

(provocative)

And now you have to go back to work and I don’t.

MARÍA

(getting into it)

You don’t need to work. You stopped needing money the day you got married.

LUCÍA

(suddenly changing her attitude)

I don’t want Carlos to have to maintain me, María.

María realises she’s on a touchy subject and apologises with a gesture. Lucía asks the waiter for the bill. It appears on the table as if the table was a screen. In spite of her friend’s objection, Lucía swipes the receipt and pays pressing on it with her two fingers. We hear the same sound we heard in the corporation.

LUCÍA

This is on me. Will you excuse me a moment?

Lucía gets up and goes to the toilet.

18 INT. DAY – RESTAURANT TOILET

Lucía goes into the restaurant’s toilet. Alone she checks her bank account on her mobile. We see she has received the payment for the memory of her first boyfriend. She lets out a sigh of relief. Looks at herself in the mirror. She feels weary. Perhaps due to the fatigue from her last “extraction” or maybe she feels worn down by the way the addiction is taking over her life. Suddenly her phone rings. It’s Carlos.

CARLOS

Hello love. Did you call?

LUCÍA

Yes, just to know if you were home yet.

CARLOS

(Puzzled)

Yes, I’m here.

LUCÍA

OK. I’ll head back now.

CARLOS

OK.

They hang up. Lucía splashes water on her face, trying to get herself together. A man suddenly appears in the toilet and looks at her strangely. Lucía realises she’s made a mistake and is in the Men’s room. She goes out feeling embarrassed.

19 INT. DAY - RESTAURANT

Lucía goes to her table but there is another woman sitting there eating. It’s not María. Lucía turns around and sees María at another table a few metres away. Lucía continues to feel confused, lost. She goes up to María who passes her bag to her getting ready to leave the restaurant.

LUCÍA

Carlos is home now.

MARÍA

Oh good. Give him my regards

The two friends say goodbye to each other affectionately. Lucía goes out. María watches her leave. She can’t help feeling worried about her friend.

20 INT/EXT. DAY - TAXI/CORPORATION FACADE

On the way home the taxi goes past the LETEOS building again. For a moment it looks as if she’s going to ask to stop again. But she gets herself together and goes by.

21 INT. DAY – KITCHEN

Lucía rushes into her house. She finds her butler in the kitchen. He seems to be warming up a baby’s bottle. Lucía doesn’t even acknowledge him. She leaves her things on the table and goes towards the bedroom.

22 INT. DAY – BEDROOM

She goes to her bedroom and can’t find Carlos. She goes towards the adjoining bathroom where a light is on and calls him.

LUCÍA

Carlos!

But he’s not there either.

23 INT. DAY - OFFICE

Lucía now goes towards the office. She knocks on the door and opens it.

He’s not there either

24 INT. DAY – SERVICE ROOM

She goes towards the service room and opens the door. No sign of her husband, only the maid and the baby in his cot, who starts crying again.

25 INT. DAY - CORRIDOR / KITCHEN

Lucía, unable to understand where her husband has got to, picks up the phone and calls him. Several rings. At last he picks it up.

CARLOS

Hello.

LUCÍA

Where are you?

CARLOS

What?

LUCÍA

Where? You said you were at home

CARLOS

I am at home, love...

LUCÍA

(playful)

But where? Are you pulling my leg..?

Lucía wanders through the house trying to run into him. Suddenly she comes across the butler with his back to her, talking on the phone too. The butler turns around.

CARLOS

I’m here...

His voice is the same as the voice we heard on the phone. Lucía steps back shocked. The man goes towards her.

CARLOS

Lucía what’s happening? You’re acting weird.

Suddenly Lucía starts realising what’s happening. She looks all around her. On the sideboard of the sitting room and on the walls are family photographs: the two of them on their wedding day, in different exotic countries, always accompanied by the man standing in front of her. Lucía is in shock. This man is Carlos, her husband. The maid, unaware of what’s happening comes towards her holding the child in her arms. The baby won’t stop crying. Lucía looks at the rest of the family photographs. She comes out in them with Carlos and a baby. And suddenly it all comes together: that child is her son. Lucía drops her red notebook in shock. The handwritten pages scatter all over the floor. Carlos also looks at them understanding what is happening. He’s suddenly become sad.

CARLOS

My God what have you done? What have you done?

Lucía is crying. Carlos slowly moves towards her until he gently takes her into his arms. Nothing good will come of it if he gets angry with her. Lucía breaks down but is comforted by his embrace.

CARLOS

Don’t worry, Lucía, we’ll get through this.

26 INT DAY – CORPORATION RECEPTION

The morning sun just manages to penetrate a few metres into the building. Carlos and Lucía go in to the corporation together. Lucía seems to have regained her composure although she still seems somewhat fearful and confused.

27 EXT. DAY – WEDDING GARDEN

Black.

CORPORATION GIRL

(voice over)

Lucía, here is your experience.

Open on black.

Subjective POV

We’re the eyes of someone. In front of us is an outdoor garden decorated for a wedding. We move forward slowly. Everyone is looking at us. They smile at us. At the end of this aisle a good-looking young man is waiting for us, slim in his elegant morning coat. He is the groom. As we get closer, we can see that this man is Carlos. Happy. The groom reaches out his hand tenderly as he speaks to us.

GROOM

You look beautiful my love!

This time we really can understand him.

And we see him perfectly.

The girl and boy kiss each other.

THE END