Carmen & Lola

Two women fall in love within a culture/community that condemns lesbians. Said community is moreover itself discriminated as a whole: gitanos (gypsies) in Spain.

Found the execution of such thorny abstract not only realistic, also truly poetic. Specially the very last scenes, to the very last millisecond of footage. Both visually, and also sound-wise. Measured, exquisitely beautiful, flooring.

Some emotional reactions and storms, as well as very spontaneous, joyful moments, feel almost like parts of a documentary. They ended up captured quite naturally, non-pretentiously. Surprised to learn afterwards that the actors (at least some?) were non-professionals. Many other movies with professional actors do not approach the level this one does. Imho it gives you that sense of having just witnessed a true work of art.

The Spanish film Carmen y Lola was shown in the U.S. with the translated title Carmen & Lola (2018). The movie was written and directed by Arantxa Echevarría.

The film stars Zaira Romero as Lola, a young Roma woman. (We use the word "Roma," but apparently in Spain they still use Gitana or Gypsy. The Roma in Spain use a word for non-Roma that the subtitles call "Whiteys.") Rosy Rodríguez portrays Carmen, another young Roma woman.

Carmen is settled within the Roma community, willing to play out the traditional lifestyle of daughter, wife, mother. Lola doesn't want to break from the community, but she wants to be a teacher, which is unsettling to her parents.

Lola knows that she's a lesbian. Carmen doesn't know that she even might have lesbian tendencies until she meets Lola. The plots starts at that point.

Both Romero and Rodriguez are excellent actors, and they are both confident and comfortable in the roles they play. It's a pleasure to watch them act. The supporting cast is excellent as well.

We saw this film at The Little Theatre, as part of Rochester's wonderful ImageOut LGBT Festival. Carmen & Lola has a pretty good rating of 7.1. I think it's better than that, and I recommend it.

It was a waste of story for me and some parts could have been worked out better like the parents part. Also it was a hell to watch the actors having no what so ever chemistry in this movie and I can sincerely say that I probally would have liked it better without any of the romance.

I have no clue why critics rate this movie so high, maybe they are so stuck to be confronted with a "reality" that they are so out of, who knows? For me this was a really bad representing what such a story should be in a romantic way.

Zaira Romero is Lola. When her cousin gets engaged, it starts conversations about what gypsy women do when they get married and start families. But Lola doesn't want to be a housewife. She doesn't want kids. She wants to be her own person and go to school for a degree and have her own career. The girl she likes happens to be her cousin's fiancee, Carmen (Rosy Rodríguez ). They spend time alone together, but Carmen has doubts. Will she have the courage to call off the wedding and spend more time with Lola? This was released in 2018, but of course this was still a huge deal in her culture. A great performance by Lola's mom... you can really feel the pain as her parents yell and make a scene in the town square when they find out. Of course, most of the LGBTQ community went through this rejection, to some degree; some parents handle it with more kindness than others. It's good, if a little dated. Spain was the third country to legalize same sex marriage, back in 2005. Written and directed by Arantxa Echevarría. Showing on hbomax streaming channel... it won numerous awards at the film festivals.

A brilliant account of the love story between two young women overcoming obstacles that may be stronger in this particular culture, but are certainly not exclusive to it. Those who accuse the film of racism and stereotypical visions should listen to the stories of non-gypsy young lesbians who have also heard their mothers cry and beg them to say it's not true. Excellently performed by all its non-professional gypsy actors, the film is definitely worth seeing.