This was a movie I saw some time between 2004 and 2007. It was a European production, either Spanish or French, rather on the arthouse side. I remember despair, quiet cynicism and shyness as the primary emotions ruling the film.

The heroine, a woman in her 20’s or 30’s, lives in an apartment building in a large city resembling Madrid or Paris. She has a neighbor; an older woman living alone in a different apartment in the same building. Two striking things I remember about the neighbor: she has a cat, and the floor of her apartment is covered with black and white checkered tiles. I want to say that the two characters interact towards the beginning of the film.

The neighbor dies, and the cat is stuck in the apartment with its dead owner. One night the heroine comes home to her apartment after work, and, for some reason, wishes to interact with her neighbor, having no idea she’s dead. At this point, the cat has been stuck in the apartment with its dead owner for days. All I remember is that the heroine somehow gains access to the neighbor’s apartment and finds her dead in the room with the checkered tile floor.

There aren’t a ton of characters, action or dialogue in the film. In fact, there are more (sometimes awkwardly) silent moments than dialogue, and we as the audience watch the heroine react to these plausible but improbable situations. I wish I could remember more…