A woman feels she must fight to hold on to her place in the household where she's been a servant for much of her life in this drama from writer and director Sebastian Silva. Raquel (Catalina Saavedra) works as a maid for a well-to-do Chilean family, and has been with the household so long that she's come to think of herself as part of the family. However, Raquel is also aware of the distance between herself and her employers, and though she's fiercely devoted to Mundo Valdes , his wife, Pilar, and their son, Lucas, she finds herself increasingly at odds with their rebellious daughter, Camila. Years of hard and unrelenting work have begun to take their toll on Raquel, and Mundo decides she could use some help; he hires a young au pair to assist her, but Raquel refuses to allow anyone to usurp her role in any way, and treats the girl so horribly she soon quits. Unaware of the conflict between Raquel and Mercedes, Mundo hires an older and more experienced women to work with Raquel, and it's not long before the two domestics are locked in a fierce battle of wills.

The meat and bones of this story are in Catalina Saavedra's remarkable performance. Saavedra, a star of stage, screen, and television in her native Chile, announces herself to the world here in collecting a passel of acting awards, including a Special Jury Prize for acting at Sundance and a Golden Globe nomination. Both the performance at the center of this film and the breath of fresh air provided by the lively Miss Loyola remind us that there are depths no one suspects at the center of that iconic figure in a black-and-white uniform. In Spanish with subtitles.