“Only consensual rough sex”: this is how director Carlos Vermut explains the accusations of three women

The director Carlos Vermut (Madrid 1980) has been accused by three women of sexual violence. She is a film student, an employee of one of his productions and a worker in the cultural sector. The three point out in the newspaper El País the alleged attacks that the filmmaker denies: “I have always practiced rough sex in a consensual manner,” he defends himself.

There are not one, not two, but three women who accuse the director of feature films like Manticora, Magical Girl o Who will sing to you. The events supposedly took place between May 2014 and February 2022. The aforementioned newspaper details the stories of the three complainants. “Vermut pinned her down, strangled her and forced her to have sex,” she says, and remembers showing opposition not only verbally, but also physically. “She explains that she tried to get away with kicks,” she says expressly.

In the second of the stories, “the aspiring director describes how the filmmaker lunged at her to kiss her and touch her breasts without her consent and how he tore off her bra.” And in the third, “the woman who worked for him, and to whom he had promised, according to her version, a better job, describes an episode in which she was locked in her house one day, after receiving 'degrading treatment' for months, both verbal and physical', and a level of violence that was not consented to in the sexual relations they had.”

Why did they not report the attacks that are now coming to light?

All the complainants agree that they did not report when the events occurred out of fear. Two of them maintain that they were afraid of losing their job and the third believed that if she reported it she would get one again. Their testimonies remain anonymous, because they fear reprisals.

There is no evidence that any of them have gone to the Police, but the three have made a sworn and signed statement and have provided material that supports their versions, such as emails, photographs and even WhatsApp conversations. People from the environment and industry workers have cooperated in this presentation of what happened.

Vermouth rejects the accusations and talks about consent. She says “she was not aware of having committed sexual violence against any woman.” “I have always practiced rough sex consensually, because I think consent is very important,” she says. “Another thing is that the person in her house after her felt bad and perhaps at the time was afraid to say it. I can't know that,” she adds. “I would like it to be published that I have had many relationships of many types, always wanting the other person to be well. And I think that having had a promiscuous sexual life and having had sex of many types can lead you to situations like these,” he insisted. in his statements.

Who is Carlos Vermut?

In 2014, ten years ago now, he won the Golden Shell in San Sebastián and directed Mantícora, one of the big surprises of last year. His cinema says that risk is his territory. Experts say that he is a screenwriter who likes safe paths. His fourth and last film, Manticore, It is a disturbing film for which Vermut obtained several nominations for the Goya Awards, won two Feroz awards (best actor and Poster), among other awards such as best European film. Mantícora is a psychological thriller that tells the story of Julián, a gray and dull twenty-something who makes a living as a video game designer, but who hides a dark and suffocating secret. In Persian mythology the manticore is a creature with an animal body and a human head that kills its prey.

Vermut's first feature film was Diamond Flash (2011), which won the Rizoma Film Award and combined superhero cinema with drama. Then came Magical Girl (2014), her second film, with a plot of blackmail and violence and with which she won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastián Film Festival. And then it was the turn of Who will sing to you, about a famous singer with amnesia who forgets how to act.s who is nominated.