Las niñas
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | girl |
| Original title | Las niñas |
| Country of production | Spain |
| original language | Spanish , Catalan |
| Publishing year | 2020 |
| length | 97 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Pilar Palomero |
| script | Pilar Palomero |
| production | Valérie Delpierre, Alex Lafuente |
| camera | Daniela Cajias |
| cut | Sofi Escudé |
| occupation | |
| |
Las niñas (German title Girls , English festival title Schoolgirls ) is a fictional film for children aged 11 and over, directed by Pilar Palomero , who also wrote the screenplay . The debut film celebrated on 23 February 2020 to the Berlinale world premiere in the section Generation Kplus .
content
The film is set in Spain in 1992 at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona and Expo 92 in Seville .
Eleven-year-old Celia lives with her mother in Saragossa and goes to a girls' school run by Catholic nuns. She is initially portrayed as an obedient student and daughter: when the music teacher only lets her move her lips during a choir rehearsal because she allegedly cannot sing, she obeys the instructions. She spends the afternoon at home doing schoolwork and preparing dinner. The 12-year-old Brisa from Barcelona, who is new to Celia's class, has moved away from childhood much more than Celia, which can already be seen in her clothes and her preference for hip music groups. The two girls become friends and it quickly becomes clear that Brisa is questioning the authority of the nuns and religion in general.
The topic of sexuality plays an important role in the film. It is incidentally shown that condoms for contraception and protection against sexually transmitted diseases are touted in public on posters and on television. The counter-movement, which sees it as an attack on public morality, is also addressed. The way in which this topic is dealt with by the adults in Celia's environment is not open: the math teacher is embarrassed by the poster, in sex education classes a text on Catholic sexual morality is dictated into the booklet as a dogma . The girls go into secrecy. For example, they read youth magazines that offer advice on flirting . Celia's friend Cris, who is much further removed from childhood than Celia, takes her divorced mother's condoms out of their hiding place in a chest of drawers, and the girls, giggling, explore what is taboo in their environment . A modern saga circulating at the school depicting anonymous sex as an attempted murder by AIDS is exposed as such by Brisa, but Cris continues to believe what is being told is fact.
A call from Celia's aunt makes it clear that Celia's maternal grandfather is seriously ill. The girl does not speak to her mother about this subject either, Celia is sent to bed. Using the example of Brisa, whose parents were killed in a traffic accident, and Celia, whose mother is a single parent , it becomes clear that being different leads to bullying and exclusion from the group. While Celia is close to tears, Brisa can react rationally and defend herself. As a result, she is less exposed to the other girls. Celia and Brisa bring this similarity closer together.
Several scenes show how the good relationship between Celia and her mother is put to the test. The mother does not respond to her daughter on the threshold of puberty, but still treats her as a child. Celia admires Brisa. She wants to imitate her dress style, but her mother doesn't have the financial means. Even when Celia asks her to buy her a short top or a bra, the mother puts her off for the next month and puts her in a very embarrassing situation in front of the class and the math teacher on the occasion of a school examination. When Celia, who now no longer accepts the supposed certainties and norms of the Catholic religion uncritically due to Brisa's offense, asks her mother a question, she evades and her daughter does not find an adequate conversation partner in her. Cris' older sister Clara and her friends give Celia and Brisa access to a new world: They listen to music with slightly anti-clerical, rebellious texts, put on make-up, experiment with cigarettes and play drinking games with hard alcohol. They secretly visit a club , experience a boy's clumsy advances there and, one after the other, go for short jaunts around the area with Cris' cousin on his motorcycle. But Celia is seen doing it, her teacher calls her mother, and she reproaches her daughter and rejects her attempts at reconciliation for a long time. At school too, Celia has to pay for her willingness to experiment: Her math teacher puts her to shame in front of the class.
The relationship between mother and daughter has cracked, Celia's mother is very insecure. Celia no longer meets her mother's expectations - she no longer prepares dinner and no longer accepts her mother's answers to her urgent questions about her father. Rather, she is looking for the family book in which marriages, births, baptisms and other significant events in human life were recorded in Spain until 2011, and finds there evidence that her mother lied to her from the start and was never married.
For Celia, Catholic sexual morality and the authority of the Church are no longer God-given: she wonders why it is considered a sin to have a child outside of marriage, and asks the question at confession. When an opportunity presents itself, she sneaks into a nun's room with Brisa and into the TV room of the monastery: she breaks taboos, although she knows that she will be punished for it. She also shows no remorse: when she is locked alone in a room and finds a host there, she eats it. The nuns summon Celia's mother to school, put Celia to shame in front of her mother, and try to restore her own authority. Celia's mother is obviously on the side of the nuns and shows no understanding for the girl, because she slaps her daughter in front of the nuns and takes her home. Celia's trust in her teachers and her mother is visibly shaken.
The topic of origin and identity becomes central again in the final phase. A phone call from Celia's aunt brings news of Celia's grandfather's death. Celia's mother is crying. Celia wants to go to her mother's family. The mother initially refuses, but wakes her the next morning to take her with her. It is there that the girl meets her aunt Paloma, who is very fond of him, but also her grandmother, who at first reacts very dismissively and later still coolly. The great-grandmother is lost in her rosary prayers and does not notice Celia. Celia then goes with her mother to her grandfather's grave. The mother begins an Our Father , Celia prays too.
After returning to Zaragoza, mother and daughter come together. The last scene is thematically linked to the first. The song practiced there is now presented to an audience. Celia's mother also came, which Celia is very happy about. At first Celia only moves her lips, as instructed by the music teacher, but then gains confidence in her voice and sings softly at first, then louder and louder and right along with it. As you can see in her laugh, it makes her proud and happy.
background
Pilar Palomero directed. She also wrote the script. The camerawoman was Daniela Cajias, and the film was shot in Saragossa , Aragon and in Lleida , Catalonia. Since the film is set in 1992, the locations selected in Zaragoza such as the Instituto Miguel Servet, the Parque Grande José Antonio Labordeta or the Paseo de Ruiseñores in the film had to look like they did at the time.
Sofi Escudé was responsible for the film editing .
The film includes Andrea Fandos , Natalia de Molina , Zoé Arnao, Julia Sierra and Francesca Piñón. The film was produced by Valérie Delpierre and Alex Lafuente. Apart from Andrea Fandos and Natalia de Molina, all actresses are from Aragon, and many of them are performing here for the first time in a film.
The director had already worked with Valérie Delpierre from the production company Inicia Films on her short film La noche de todas las cosas . BTEAM Prods and Las Niñas Majicas AIE were also involved in the production. The Spanish streaming provider Movistar + and the television companies of Aragon and Catalonia were also involved, as was RTVE , the Spanish public broadcasting company based in Madrid . Support came from the government of Aragon , the Catalan cultural institute ICEC ( Instituto Catalán de las Empresas Culturales ) and the Institute for Cinema and Audiovisual Art ICAA ( Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales ). BTeam Pictures was responsible for the national distribution and Film Factory Entertainment for the international distribution. It was calculated with a budget of 1,200,000 euros.
Filming began in July 2019. It ended after six weeks, in mid-August 2019.
The debut film had its world premiere in February 2020 at the Berlinale in the Generation Kplus section .
The film launch in Spain is planned for September 4, 2020.
analysis
Visual style and imagery
A large poster placed in front of the school can be seen several times in the film. The Ministry of Health apparently printed warnings against unprotected sexual intercourse on it, citing dangers such as hepatitis, AIDS and syphilis. Under Franco, such a supposedly open approach to sexuality would not have been possible, so this poster is a reference to the narrated time. In one scene a nun comes out of school while the girls are standing by the poster; she speaks to them briefly and then takes a taxi. The girls giggle and say that the nun must have been uncomfortable with the content of the poster. This does not indicate an open approach to sexuality.
Themes and motifs
The director sees the film as a portrait of the simultaneously conservative and modern Spain of the 1990s from a female point of view. He shows the contradictions of growing up in an environment that strives for openness but possesses antiquated values. Las Niñas is the portrait of the current generation of women against the background of the past: It becomes clear what upbringing these women received in Spain in the 1990s. The human being is shown as a complex being who is subject to the formative influence of his living conditions and, above all, to that of the most important reference persons: teachers, parents, friends. The important topics of upbringing, childhood and family are addressed as well as the role of women in society and the difficult search for oneself.
Awards
The film was at the Berlinale 2020 for the award the Best First film of GWFF nominated.
Trivia
The character Celia bears autobiographical traits of the director. One day she realized that her own upbringing in the family, in the Catholic school and in society as a whole was largely determined by the macho culture . The 1990s seemed very open and modern to her at the time, but the film shows a different view of this time. Celia's mother wants the best for her daughter, but does not give her what she needs.
Web links
- Las niñas in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Profile at berlinale.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c LAS NIÑAS. July 2, 2018, accessed February 13, 2020 (Spanish).
- ↑ a b Schoolgirls (Las Niñas) • Film Factory Entertainment. In: FilmFactory entertainment. Retrieved February 13, 2020 (UK English).
- ↑ a b c d e Las niñas. Retrieved February 12, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g Las niñas. Retrieved February 13, 2020 (Spanish).
- ↑ Las niñas (2020) - IMDb. Retrieved February 12, 2020 .
- ↑ Las niñas | Schoolgirls | Girl. Retrieved March 8, 2020 .
- ↑ PRENSA RTVE: Finaliza el rodaje de 'Las niñas', participada por RTVE, ópera prima de Pilar Palomero, con Natalia de Molina. August 19, 2019, accessed February 13, 2020 (Spanish).
- ↑ Complete program for the Berlinale Panorama. Retrieved February 12, 2020 .
- ↑ Las niñas. Retrieved February 12, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Europa Press: Pilar Palomero rueda su primer largometraje 'Las niñas', un "retrato femenino de una España conservadora y moderna". August 5, 2019, accessed February 13, 2020 .
- ↑ CIMA MENTORING | Las Niñas. Retrieved February 13, 2020 (Spanish).
- ↑ GWFF Award for Best First Feature. Retrieved February 12, 2020 .
- ↑ Las cineastas dan el salto: "Nadie nos va a decir que no podemos hacer nuestras películas". October 9, 2019, accessed February 13, 2020 (Spanish).