V.O.S. is a rom-com which focuses on the characters of Vicky (Vicenta N’Dongo), Ander (Andrés Herrera), Manu (Paul Berrondo) and Clara (Àgata Roca), and their changing relationships, but that is less important than the central conceit of portraying a film being filmed within a film, where the four characters are also the actors who play them.

A lot of comedy comes from this, as scenes you believe are between the four friends are revealed through a number of cinematic devices to be scripted scenes they are filming, and we are given a jolt of dissonance. Other conventions, such as the asides of inner thoughts, and comments to camera, are used to heighten the awareness of the constructed nature of the scene; though with a naturality that leaves you fearing the actor will turn to their friends with a mortified, “I’m sorry, did I say that out loud?”.

As the film progresses, these shifts become more seamless, and one is usually unsure as to what the reality is. This confusion is increased by the script being a work in progress – Ander (the character who is writing the film they are shooting) regularly breaks the scene to discuss the script. We are driven to question the strength of the authorial voice, where the characters are speaking words that Ander has put into their mouths: when are they acting independently, and how will the dynamics of a friendship group be affected if one of the four is exerting that kind of pressure, albeit covertly? Does Ander feel tempted to use this power? A beautifully played scene where his girlfriend decides to leave him has timing that is so convenient for him that you can see he is overjoyed. But just as you are suspecting he has written a cowardly way to get himself out of an uncomfortable situation, she starts berating him for his cowardice.

With V.O.S. the fourth wall is repeatedly dismantled, and this is reinforced not only with the constant visual references, where the camera pans across to show the crew, but as the characters play film title charades, and on discussing the script, ask “Didn’t Woody Allen do that?” But it could have been a film about anything. As Clara says to Ander, V.O.S. challenges us with “a flashback within a flashback, and nothing is understood”.