General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Las Oscuras Primaveras

Las Oscuras Primaveras (released in English as The Obscure Spring) is a 2014 Mexican drama film directed by Ernesto Contreras and written by his brother Carlos Contreras. It follows Igor, a plumber trapped in a stagnant marriage, and Pina, a divorced single mother who serves coffee in an office building, two people who desire each other deeply but are not free; the arrival of spring brings the consummation of their love along with passion and guilt.¹

Key fact	Detail
Original title / English title	Las Oscuras Primaveras / The Obscure Spring²
Year and country	2014, Mexico; drama, 100 minutes¹
Director and writer	Ernesto Contreras; screenplay by Carlos Contreras¹
Principal cast	José María Yazpik (Igor), Cecilia Suárez (Flora), Irene Azuela (Pina), Hayden Meyenberg (Lorenzo), Margarita Sanz (María)¹
Festival and release	Premiered at the Morelia International Film Festival in October 2014; commercial release in about 80 Mexican screens in late January 2015³
Music	Emmanuel del Real of Café Tacvba, with Ramiro and Renato del Real⁴
Ratings	IMDb 6.0/10 (about 1,200 votes); Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 67% from 6 reviews⁵

Spoilers

Plot and characters

Igor (José María Yazpik) is a plumber who has been married for years to Flora (Cecilia Suárez); their relationship has fallen into routine and he feels unfulfilled. Pina (Irene Azuela) is a divorced mother devoted to her small son Lorenzo (Hayden Meyenberg); she serves coffee in an office and feels permanently depressed, longing to feel desired by a man again. When their lives cross by chance, sexual desire erupts between them, and despite knowing that loving each other will have painful consequences for others, they begin a passionate relationship.⁶

The film's promotional synopsis frames the affair through two small acts of intention: Pina decides to make a lion costume for her little son, and Igor decides to buy a photocopying machine for his wife, and spring comes to liberate them, filling their lives with passion and guilt.¹ The story is set in Mexico City.⁷

Production

The film was produced by Luis Albores, Érika Ávila, Mónica Lozano, and Carlos Meza, with photography by Tonatiuh Martínez, editing by Valentina Leduc Navarro, sound by Enrique Ojeda and Enrique Greiner, and art direction by Bárbara Enríquez and Alejandro García. Production companies were Alebrije Cine y Video, Agencia Sha, Lady Leonor Producciones, and FIDECINE, and the film was funded with the EFICINE fiscal incentive under Article 226/189 of the Federal Income Tax Law. The location was the Distrito Federal (Mexico City).¹ José María Yazpik and Cecilia Suárez also served as producers, with Suárez credited as co-producer.⁸

Ernesto Contreras, born in Veracruz in 1969 and a graduate of the film program at UNAM (CUEC), had debuted with Párpados azules (2007) and made the documentary Seguir siendo: Café Tacvba (2010) before this, his second fiction feature.⁴ He said the screenplay began to be written shortly after Párpados azules premiered.³ The collaboration with Emmanuel del Real ("Meme") of Café Tacvba grew out of the documentary; it was del Real's first experience composing for cinema, working with his brothers Ramiro and Renato.⁹

Contreras described the film's visual design as deliberately wintry: "We were very interested in creating an atmosphere that was grey and cold like winter, like that stage just before spring." He also framed the title as a demystification of spring, which carries not only flowers but "the force of nature, the fight for survival and perpetuation."⁹

Release and reception

Las oscuras primaveras competed in the Mexican Feature Film Section of the 12th Morelia International Film Festival, premiering there in October 2014, and opened commercially in Mexico in late January 2015 on about eighty screens in cities across the country.³ It had its U.S. premiere at the Miami International Film Festival on March 12, 2015.¹⁰

At the 2015 Ariel awards of the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences, the film received awards including Best Editing and Best Sound.⁷ A catalog of the Atlántidoc festival dates editor Valentina Leduc's Ariel for Best Editing to 2014,¹¹ while the Mexican press account places the awards in the 2015 ceremony.⁷

Critical response was divided. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 67% Tomatometer from six reviews and a 67% audience score.¹² Ira Franco of Chilango gave it three of five stars, writing that Contreras "excels in storytelling and keeps the dark tone throughout the movie," while noting that the characters' professions were hard to believe in casting terms.¹³ Verónica Sánchez Marín of En Filme praised Contreras's talent but found the film lacking "cohesion, pace and harmony," and Alejandra Alarcón Cervantes of En la butaca called it too long.¹² Hugo Hernández Valdivia of Cinexcepción scored it 7.5/10, concluding that it confirmed Contreras as one of current Mexican cinema's essential voices.¹² In El Financiero, José Felipe Coria called it an intense adult film that treats intimacy and sexuality as subversive and revelatory, photographed by Tonatiuh Martínez as a deteriorating Mexico City.¹⁴

Later availability

The film has remained in circulation on streaming platforms. As of late 2026, JustWatch listed it streaming in Mexico on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix Standard with Ads, and the ViX Premium Amazon Channel, with purchase on the Apple TV Store,⁵ and in the United States on the ViX Premium Amazon Channel and free with ads on The Roku Channel.¹⁵ Netflix's Mexican listing describes it as a sensual, somber independent drama about a single mother and a man trapped in an unhappy marriage.¹⁶

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Erotic thrillers and dramas

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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