Film

The Maid

Name: The Maid
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: 2009
Cast: Catalina Saavedra, Claudia Celedón, Andrea García-Huidobro, Mariana Loyola, Alejandro Goic

Other titles called The Maid: the 2005 film, the 2020 film.

Drama

A Chilean portrait of servitude, resentment and the small wars fought in kitchens and bedrooms. Catalina Saavedra's Raquel is a lifer—a housemaid so embedded in her employer's home that she's become both fixture and poison. Funny and sad without ever choosing between them, it observes how power vacuums get filled and what happens when someone finally resists.

TMDb rating

3.4

If you liked this

Y Tu Mamá También2001

A portrait of friendship and desire that shifts register constantly—tender one moment, unflinching the next. Like The Maid, it finds comedy and tragedy in the same space, and trusts you to sit with the discomfort.

But Some find the sexual content gratuitous rather than purposeful. It's also firmly of its era in ways that can feel dated.

Dogtooth2009

A family drama where power dynamics are absolutely warped, held together by performance and ritual. The comedy comes from watching someone try to game an impossible system—exactly Raquel's game, but darker.

But It's bleak and strange, with almost no conventional plot. If you want warmth or resolution, this will not provide it.

Fish Tank2009

Intimate, angry portrait of a young woman trying to carve out space in a world that won't accommodate her. The same DNA as The Maid—class anxiety, thwarted desire, small moments of grace.

But It's gritty and deliberately unglamorous. Some viewers find the realism overwhelming rather than enlightening.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Maid

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Pan's Labyrinth2006

Both films use genre elements (comedy here, fantasy there) to examine class, survival and the fantasy of escape—but never let those elements soften the real cost of powerlessness.

A young girl creates fantasy worlds to survive an unbearable reality. Like The Maid, it uses genre (here, fairy tale) to explore how the powerless adapt, resist and sometimes break. The same architecture of small power in impossible situations.

But It's a Spanish-language fantasy with real violence. If you expect whimsy, the cruelty will feel like a betrayal.

Barbara2012

A woman working as a doctor in East Germany maintains distance and control as a form of survival. Like Raquel, she's learned that intimacy is dangerous; the film watches her slowly, painfully test that belief.

But It moves slowly and refuses dramatic catharsis. The emotional payoff is genuine but subtle—easy to miss if you're waiting for something louder.

A Prophet2009

A young man learns to navigate a brutal system by observing power and exploiting weakness. It's about adaptation and survival in a closed world—the same engine as The Maid, turned up much louder.

But Prison politics and violence are its subject. If you're watching for intimacy rather than strategy, you'll find it less rewarding than The Maid.

Winter Light1963

Bergman's portrait of a woman slowly disappearing into the routines that define her. The same quiet devastation as The Maid, fifty years earlier and in a different register—colder, more austere.

But It's genuinely bleak and offers no comfort. Some viewers find Bergman's bleakness self-indulgent or dated.

Housekeeping1987

A woman takes in her eccentric aunt; the domestic space becomes a battleground for different values. It shares The Maid's interest in what it means to maintain a home and what home owes you.

But It's sentimental in ways The Maid deliberately avoids. The whimsy doesn't land for everyone, and the class politics are less sharp.

The Help2011

Domestic workers navigate power, complicity and resistance within the homes that employ them. It engages with many of The Maid's themes, particularly around servitude and what workers owe their employers.

But It smooths its politics into something more comforting than The Maid allows. Some find it preachy; others feel it flattens real complexity.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles1976

The Maid watches a woman trapped in routine; Jeanne Dielman treats routine as a system so intricate it becomes the entire content. One is a drama about escape; the other is a film that is escape.

Three days in the life of a widow managing her routine with absolute precision. It's about the architecture of domesticity and what happens when routine breaks. The most patient, most radical film about what The Maid documents in miniature.

But It's three hours and has almost no traditional plot. Watching it is an act of attention most viewers won't sign up for.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles poster

Caché2005

Both films examine the servant's-eye view of a household's secrets—what Raquel knows, what the family denies, what will eventually surface.

A middle-class family receives mysterious videotapes. It's a thriller, but also a meditation on what the powerful refuse to see and what servants are made invisible. The paranoia here connects to Raquel's sense of encroachment and betrayal.

But It's oblique and ends ambiguously. If you want clarity or resolution, you will leave frustrated.