Writer: Belén Sánchez-Arévalo
Director: Javier Marco
Josefina is an ideal choice for a foreign film festival as it minimises the potential language barrier between the audience. Javier Marco’s gentle mediative movie is full of long stretches of silence, has sparse dialogue and features a pair of actors with faces so expressive verbal communication is hardly necessary.
Prison officer Juan (Roberto Álamo) becomes infatuated with Berta (Emma Suárez), when she makes regular visits to her son who is an inmate at the prison. With a view to striking up a relationship Juan pretends to be the father of a female prisoner who he names Josefina after some scribbled graffiti. The ploy works and a tentative romance builds but there are complications- Berta is caring for a terminally ill husband and Juan’s efforts to maintain his fictions become strained particularly when his imaginary daughter somehow makes an appearance.
Belén Sánchez-Arévalo’s script is a masterpiece of restraint. Little information is given about the characters; the crime committed by Berta’s son is never revealed and we do not know if Juan has ever been in a relationship. The audience is allowed to speculate how an artistically inclined young man ended up in gaol or why Juan has chosen a solitary life. The dialogue is minimal and simple never drawing attention by being unrealistically witty.
This is not to say the film lacks humour; in fact, with a slightly different approach, it could easily become a straightforward comedy or even a farce. The humour, typical of the film, is discreet and arises from the situations and characters rather than jokes with punchlines.
Director Javier Marco is a tease; constantly setting up situations where the relationship between the characters looks likely to reach a crisis point only to pull back. After Juan plucks up the courage to approach Berta and say he has something he wants to ask her the scene changes to show her measuring him for a suit rather than a romance situation. In the remarkable scene when Berta realises Juan is a prison employee not a visitor both characters separately look at the audience through the screen as if ready to break the fourth wall and make a direct address.
Marco sets an atmosphere which is not so much grim as weary. The scenery and clothes worn by the characters are autumnal shades; washed-out and past their best. The characters are not living lives of quiet desperation but rather showing resigned dignity in the face of apparently ceaseless adversity. On the occasion the couple embrace the sense is of them seeking mutual comfort rather than sexual satisfaction. Both of them have an air of bemused innocence with Berta wondering how her life ended up in this way and Juan observing other people at play and trying his best to make a connection through small acts of kindness.
At times the behaviour of the characters risks making them seem unsympathetic. Juan is, after all, behaving like a stalker and Berta’s reaction to her husband’s demise is to remove the rubber sheet from, and roll around on, the bed they shared. However, in the context of their experiences, these actions seem understandable human responses.
Roberto Álamo shows the decency behind the enigmatic Juan. There is a sense of time running out; one last chance to secure happiness. Álamo makes clear Juan deserves his chance with a series of tiny but telling actions – walking the dog belonging to, and socialising with, an isolated neighbour.
Emma Suárez brings an earthy sensuality to Berta. A bone-weariness hangs over the character; someone who has endured too much and simply not had enough sleep. Her reaction to discovering Juan’s deception is the resigned response of someone who is close to giving up hope having become accustomed to constant disappointment.
At a time when cinema is in danger of becoming infantile with CGI-heavy superhero movies it is a pleasure to find a film suitable for grown-ups; and the final scene is terrific.
La Chica Nueva is screening at the ¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Festival at HOME Manchester on 27th and 30th March 2022.
