Long-distance relationships have come a long way since the days where the closest form of contact was a phone call. Today, you can actually see your significant other by live feed during video chat or stay up to date on virtually everything they are willing to share through social media. But still, is there really any substitute for physical human interaction? In Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10.000 KM, couple Alex (Natalia Tena) and Sergi (David Verdaguer) are living together in an apartment in Barcelona and trying to have their first child. They decide to put their plans on hold for a year and reluctantly enter a long-distance relationship so that Alex may accept an artist residency in Los Angeles. The film proceeds to chronicle the ups and downs of their attempts at maintaining their love through video chat sessions, text messages and email communication.

The most impressive thing about Marques-Marcet’s feature directorial debut is how much is accomplished with very limited resources. The director avoids side-plots or supporting characters in his bare bones script opting instead for just two characters and two locations, limiting the action in the entire film to the Barcelona apartment and Alex’s small studio in Los Angeles. Instead, the internet is used as an ingenious way to expand the scope of the film. Google map tours and Alex’s Facebook pictures provide the only glimpses of the characters away from their respective homes. The expert simplicity is apparent from the very first scene in which the characters, their relationship, the setting, inciting incident and stakes are all established in one free flowing, intimate and interestingly composed single shot lasting twenty three minutes.

Sticking to a minimalist approach allows the focus to stay on Alex and Sergi every step of the way and by the final scene of the film you really feel like you know them. This is thanks to the fearless and downright miraculous performances by Natalia Tena and David Verdaguer. The pair carries the film with effortless grace and is the prime reason why it’s so effective. It’s also refreshing to see a new director integrate recent advances in communication technology into his story, not with an intention to criticize it for enabling anti-social behavior, but to embrace the current possibilities of communication in the modern world. An honest and tremendously relevant love story depicting the joyful highs and crippling lows of a modern long-distance relationship, 10.000 KM is passionate filmmaking in the rawest form.