Las niñas

People born in 1979 or 1980 or even 1981, 1982 or 1983 in Spain lived in a country which made an effort to be seen as "modern", but it had inside a strong contrast between this modernity and the Spanish traditions of the previous decades.

It is very hard to find a film these days that doesn't feature a useless man, a empowered woman and a trans hero. This film shows the harsh reality that we all women live: our worst enemy is other women.

Mothers ruining the lives of their daughters because of their own ghosts, created by their mothers. This film opens our eyes and shows us where the real problem lies in women's society.

Celia, an 11-year-old girl, studies at a nuns' school in Zaragoza and lives with her mother. Brisa, a new classmate recently arrived from Barcelona, pushes her towards a new stage in her life: adolescence. On this journey, in the Spain of the Expo and the 1992 Olympics, Celia discovers that life is made up of many truths and some lies.

Uninspired and mostly autobiographical coming of age yawn fest. The writer-director seems to have come across her girly diaries and decided that it was a good idea to share her experiences with the world. Gave up half way. If that was the best Spanish film of the year, God knows which one was the worst.

This film isn't just another coming-of-age story: It depicts with a naturalism the major contrast of 90s Spain. This contrast was between the more relaxed morality that the media wanted to project and the conservative stance of the Cathoilic Church and rural areas. The path to adolescense is well told, with all the shananigans and truth revelations it entails. The direction is almost Bressonian in its minimalism and the music is exclusively from the era. Overall, a stellar movie.

Seriously, is this the winner of Goya 2021 for the Best Film? A story that could be told in 15 minutes extended with no interest sequences and never ending shots. I can't believe this is the best we can do in Spain.