Laia

An epileptic girl living in a remote fishing village is disliked by the villagers because of her condition which they view as bad luck. She is supposed to be a wild and free spirit - but there is a difference in wild and free and simply promiscuous.

This film is simply an excuse for many many naked couplings - one of which takes place next to a corpse.

Laia flirts with the boyfriend of one of her acquaintances whilst she is already having an affair with her husband's best friend.

Her husband is a wife beater - he has known her since childhood and been obsessed with her. She married him only to escape her hateful alcoholic mother.

So she is using everyone around her - which I find hard to sympathise with. Even after she has a handicapped child - her behaviour continues the same.

Throughout the film there is a weird skeleton costume dance which signifies something to the film maker but unfortunately not to me. The ending - oh so symbolic - if you give a jot about it by then.

I would put this in the category of Art House - which to me means a load of over sexualised meaningless tripe.

In an isolated fishing village, everyone knows everyone else's business but not always their own. Laia is a neglected and unloved child, tormented for her epilepsy and strange ways, but grows up tough, wilful and beautiful. Two marriages revive hatred and resentment stewing over many years as Laia unleashes a torrent of strong feelings and anger.

A measured film with a washed-out colour palette that often seems fully monochrome. We sense time passing slowly, repetitively, as the menfolk fish when the sea allows and the women wait to marry or to inherit and then marry. An odd, slightly awkward, skeleton and drum dance punctuates the runtime, perhaps to mark the passing of seasons, although they bleed into the main plot at one point.

The actor playing Laia captures the wayward spirit and self-destructive behaviour that often follows a neglectful childhood, although there seems to be an odd disconnect between childhood and adulthood, as if the characters ceased to know each other before becoming reacquainted. Laia seems to outgrow childhood epilepsy, leaving a single seizure as an inadequate explanation for her curious mix of integration and aloofness.

Some other characters are more caricatures. The wise priest, the knowing bar keeper, the likeable philanderer. The hook-nosed hunchbacked heiress would be a lazy stereotype if only she had a hook-nose or a hunchback.

The overall feeling is of impending tragedy, but the film keeps us enthralled until we learn just how inevitable it had been. Beautifully shot, with horizontal lines emphasising the openness of the sea and the isolation of the village. As far from a romcom as it is possible to get, but compelling all the same.

I have to admit, I did not think this would have as much nudity in it - but it was something that actually is in line and helps the story being told. We have a woman who is unhappy, with who she is with - and we also see others taking advantage of that. On the other hand, you could say her husband is taking advantage of her too.

Still we can see where this is going - we feel the direction this will take ... and yet when certain things happen, we still are shocked by them. The impact is there and I at least really rooted for the main female character. Where will her journey lead her and who is going to be responsible for what? We'll have to see.