After a tour at the San Sebastian festival, “Soy Nevenka”, the new film by Spanish director Icíar Bollaín arrives in Zurich.
In 1999, at just 24 years old, Nevenka Fernández (Mireia Oriol) is elected municipal councilor at the town hall of Ponferrada. If his relationship with the charismatic mayor Ismael Alvarez (Urko Olazabal) begins cordially, everything deteriorates very quickly. Mentally and physically harassed, Nevenka endures hell. She then decides to file a complaint.
Sixteen years before MeToo, Nevenka Fernández was alone against everyone. At the time, his story had the effect of a bomb in his native Spain. For the first time, a politician was convicted of sexual harassment. And the filmmaker Iciar Bollaínalso a screenwriter alongsideIsa Campolaunches into the illustration of this fight.
From the first minutes, we observe Nevenka’s filing of a complaint. Directly afterwards, the film exposes the events that led to this decision and, thus, the torments of its protagonist. If Ismael Alvarez’s character is first adorned with a cordial smile, the knowledge of what is going to happen chills the blood. And very quickly, violence breaks out and unease is felt.
Mireia Oriol and Urko Olazabal in “Soy Nevenka”
© 2024 Xenix Filmdistribution GmbH
The actions, the words, the looks: all the aggression suffered by the young woman crosses the screen to hit the spectators in the face. In order to illustrate Nevenka’s descent into hell, the director of photography Jordan Gray uses particularly effective camerawork, despite their simplicity. But if the feature film wants to be the story of a woman’s struggle, it seems above all to favor the illustration of her ordeal.
An illustration, certainly, necessary in order to understand the horror of the thing, but which will then leave little room for the trial itself. Too quickly dispatched, the latter almost loses its importance, and its outcome, as crucial as it is disappointing in terms of the repercussions on Nevenka herself, goes almost unnoticed.
Fortunately, the cast manages to captivate with a game brimming with realism. In the role of Nevenka, the actress Mireia Oriol is impressive. The naturalness of his emotions reinforces the public’s permanent confusion. With his dark and chilling gaze, Urko Olazabal slips deftly into the skin of Ismael Alvarez and delivers an uneasy and striking performance. Two masterful talents to bring to the screen a story worth knowing!
3,5/5 ★
More information about “Soy Nevenka”
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