La niña santa (The Holy Girl)
Lucrecia Martel
Country: Argentina, Spain, Italy, Netherlands
Year: 2004
Format: 35 mm
Length: 106 min
Image: Colour
Language: Spanish
Production company: El Deseo, Senso Producciones, La Pasionaria, R&C Produzioni, Teodora
Producer: Lita Stantic, Álvaro Urtizberea, Nora Kohen, Alfredo Ghirardo, Esther García, Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar
Screenplay: Lucrecia Martel, Juan Pablo Domenech
Photography: Félix Monti
Editor: Santiago Ricci
Music: Andres Gerszenzon
Sound: Guido Berenblum, Marcos De Aguirre, David Miranda, Victor Alejandro Tendler
Actors: Mercedes Morán, Carlos Belloso, Alejandro Urdapilleta, María Alche, Julieta Zylberberg
Synopsis
Set in a provincial family-run hotel during a medical conference, Martel's second film explores two teenage girls’ burgeoning sexuality and religious fervour. By piecing together a mosaic of nuanced details, subtle sounds and fleeting moments, Martel creates a striking portrait of adolescence and shows life to be inevitably undefined and confusing. “Desire is an utterly ungovernable feeling you can have for anyone. Desire is above all laws and limitations. Desire shows us that the world can take any form whatsoever.” Lucrecia Martel