“They are part of our history, they entertain and teach”

Today I recommend two films with several points in common: both have been presented in San Sebastián with good reviews, they are directed by two prestigious directors and their protagonists are women whose cases were in the media. Women played by great actresses who could win the Donosti and will surely be nominated in the next awards season.

The red virgin tells the story of a famous left-wing writer indoctrinated by her mother since she was a child, turning her into a prodigy, Hildegart. She was educated in different disciplines due to her mother’s desire to change the dictates of a society in which men ruled and women had no acquired rights. He faced everything and everyone, including the PSOE, with a lot of influence in the Second Republic. She will meet and fall in love with a young militant, Abel Velilla, against the wishes of her domineering mother who will go so far as to kill her when she believes she is breaking all the precepts for which she was raised.

It is not the first time that Hildegart’s story has been told, in the 70s Fernán Gómez directed My daughter Hildegart and has recently been taken to the theater. Hildegart’s work, silenced under Franco, is brought to the cinema by Paula Ortiz with a touch of truthfulness and sensitivity. Try to explain what happened through the eyes of that obsessed mother played by a inmensa Najwa Nimri. The viewer, whether they know the story or not, will enter fully into this moving and necessary story. Totally recommended.

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As it is also I’m Nevenkaby the always effective and sometimes brilliant Icíar Bollaín. Tells the real case of Nevenka Fernández, the young woman who put a politician on the bench for sexual harassment for the first time. It happened in 2000 when Nevenka, 24 years old, a finance councilor in Ponferrada, suffered relentless harassment from the mayor, accustomed to doing whatever he wanted, personally and politically. And that is what interests Bollaín.

“I am Nevenka grabs the viewer as if they were watching a thriller with no escape”

We see Nevenka’s ordeal without anyone understanding her, comprehending her and, what is worse, while they insult her and turn their backs on her while the media subjects her to a public trial. The film grabs the viewer as if they were watching a thriller from which there is no escape.like the protagonist herself. The trial is not of much interest to Bollaín, who summarizes it very well in two sequences, enough to see the degree of torture that Nevenka suffered. I’m Nevenka I needed an actress capable of giving all kinds of nuances and Mireia Oriol more than fulfills her task. In some moments he is memorable, like the rest of the cast directed by a director who knows what she wants and brings out the best in her actors.

Two great films that you should take into account because Not only are they part of our history, but they also entertain and teach.

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