The title refers to Madrid's central square, from which all distances within Spain are measured. Zero may also describe the state of the lives and stories of the 14 lonely strangers whose lives intersect and collide at this popular meeting point on a sweltering August afternoon. Chaos ensues when four pairs of strangers each make plans to meet. Mistaken identities and second chances are among the results of this comedy of errors featuring horny gay university student Máximo (Armando del Río), an internet-love seeking flamenco dancer (Victor Ullate Jr.), macho lovelorn gigolo Miguel (Jesús Cabrero), an actress, and a businessman starved for new sexual experiences. A young film director (Carlos Fuentes) arrives in town to meet his sister's friend, hooker Tatiana (Elisa Matilla) waits for her next trick, a woman married to a workaholic husband hires a male escort, a young woman whose fiancé is a morose waiter at a Km.0 bar and her younger sister appear, and then there's the male escort's roommate Benjamín (Miguel García). Multiple cases of mistaken identity lead almost everyone to the wrong pairing, and ultimately all 14 strangers become involved in this tangle of love and lust.
Several locals become drawn into the mix as well, including a local bartender (Alberto San Juan) who dreams of owning his own business, the bartender's shallow, robbery-prone fiancée Amor (Silke Klein) and her younger sister, a police officer (Roberto Álamo) with impulse control issues, and a mysterious stranger who seems rather bemused by the whole scenario. Sexuality is celebrated in all forms, including physical relations between older women and younger men, friendly intimacy and flirting between straight men and gay men, and the goal of helping a prostitute to earn what she's worth, rather than rescuing her from the profession. At first glance, all the connections may seem a little confusing, but the pacing is steady and the characters larger than life, so you never have that much trouble following all the diverse episodes. There are also various subplots that effectively bounce off each intersection of the characters.
The plot is contrived, the coincidences abound, but the characters find unexpected love and rejoice in the rain. It's a sweet film, fun and sexy without becoming overly graphic, politically incorrect, a romantic drama where the topic of sex pops up constantly, with very unexpected twists and turns that are woven into the plot. "KM.0" is a fast-paced, creative and warmly captivating farce the shows that serendipity, providence, and life's choices and coincidences can sneak up on us when we least expect it. The characters are genuine and likable, and the direction and cinematography are very good. It has a refreshingly earnest sexual frankness, which is both hip and cute at the same time. Joan Bibiloni composed the music, and both Yolanda García Serrano and Juan Luis Iborra wrote the screenplay and directed. In Spanish with English subtitles.
