Composed entirely of a single tracking shot across an apartment, “Email to Mom” starts as a routine missive from a young female student in Peru to her mother, chronicling her first days at university. As the email continues, however, a sense of foreboding develops, punctuated by strange sounds taking place off camera. In the end, you pretty much know what’s coming, but this just makes you want to see the results for yourself. In a scant three minutes, Gerardo Ruiz Miñán takes a seemingly innocent e-mail and builds a climate of dread and suspense that ends in a surprisingly effective climax.
