LA NINA SANTA

(The Holy Girl)

Her captivating follow-up deals with the confusion between sexual awakening and religious fervour in an adolescent girl (Amalia), holidaying in a hotel hosting a medical conference for ear, nose and throat specialists.

The focus is not just on Amalia, but the torpid, dysfunctional environments and people that surround her too.

REVIEWS

"In her mesmerizing follow-up to La Ciénaga, Martel offers an alternately dark and playful allegory about religion, desire and familial guilt. (...) Martel’s meticulous attention to sound is elevated to a major theme of La niña santa, which uses its extraordinarily subtle soundtrack to explore the ineffable, musical texture of voice and the fallibility of language." - HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE

"La Niña Santa is a curiously muffled, dreamy film that simultaneously engages and distances us." - THE GUARDIAN

PRIZES, NOMINATIONS

Winner of:

- Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best New Actress, Best Supporting Actress - ARGENTINIAN FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARD
- Critics Award - SAO PAULO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Nominated for:
- Golden Palm, CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

WHAT LUCRECIA MARTEL SAYS ABOUT HER OWN FILM

Talking about the fact that her film is about religion and sexuality, she says:
"The awareness of sexuality in the teens gives you a new perception of your own body, and the distances between your body and other bodies," she says.

"It's like a new perception of reality. I thought it was something very interesting to put in my characters. There's conflict between religious ideas that tend to oppress the body and impose a rigid framework on it - and the body itself, which is always opposing that, always revolting against it."

About her use of sound she says:
"As a body part, I think the ear is very beautiful, like a shell," she says. "It doesn't have the sense of moral judgment an eye can have when it's looking at you. Ears are more animal and less rational than eyes. If I were not brought up in the Catholic world," she laughs, "I would probably have filmed something more pornographic!"

- THE TELEGRAPH

LUCRECIA MARTEL SEASON

At the forefront of the Argentine New Wave, Martel makes narratively subtle films in which sound and image share an equal footing.

Whilst Lucrecia Martel's The Headless Woman is currently doing massively well on the film festival circuit, we take a look at her previous two films. Be sure not to miss these as you will be hearing a lot about her...

"Lucrecia Martel is considered one of the most singular filmmakers in the world today" - Discovering Latin America Festival, London, 2008

The other film we are showing as part of the season is:

La Cienaga (2001) - Sun 10 May, 7.30pm