Les sorcières d'Akelarre

You will be taken back to the 1600s in Spain. The acting is impecable, sublime and evoking. The photography is like that of an oil painting and the music is involving and delicious. This is a film that will make you think throughout the movie, it's not a comfortable movie to watch, however I feel it's a movie many people need to watch. Allow yourself to submerge in a journey to the Middle Ages where women where considered dangerous, mainly by religious leaders. It will remind you of many situations that we see still to this day in our societies. This film is a masterpiece, for what it says, for what it hides and for what entails.

A new Spanish added to Netflix about the witch trials. A group of girls got accused of witchcraft. To delay the execution, they must lure the inquisitor into witnessing the Sabbath.

This movie is pretty much a satire about the ridiculousness of the hysteria in the past about witches. It demonstrated the saying-is-believing effect: the more you say or do what you think others want to see or hear, the more you believe in it.

As the plot progressed, I started to see how stupid and funny the old beliefs and signs that people used to identify witches. It's easy to trick and invoke curiosity from someone who blindly believe in something.

Overall, a ridiculous and crazy story that poked at the extreme and blind beliefs in witchcrafts. A good refresh from the popular movie genre. 8/10

Abstract

Akelarre (Coven) -recent winner of five Goya awards- constitutes a powerful and lucid chronicle of the macho and misogynistic religious fanaticism of the Spanish Catholic Inquisition, of how it "adapted" reality to its prejudices, and does not hesitate to stage its comic stupidity at times , imposing an unexpected twist on the story and projecting all these towards the political present in an eloquent way but never underlined thanks to its realistic register and with a great staging.

Review

At the beginning of the 17th century, a group of inquisitors led by the investigating judge Rostegui (Alex Brendemühl, Dr. Mengele de Wakolda) and his Counselor (Daniel Fanego) arrived at a fishing village in the Basque Country (just one stopover in their disastrous journey ) and arrests and tortures a group of young adolescents accusing them of witchcraft, in a typical case of the investigation processes carried out by the Spanish Inquisition.

The approach that the Argentine director (and co-writer) Pablo Agüero makes of this historical event is very rich, with its multiple dimensions projected onto the present.

In the first place, the inquisitive duo, which combines the religious fanaticism of the investigating judge with the skeptical bureaucratic coldness of the counselor. The way in which Rostegui interprets and "adapted" reality to his prejudices in the interrogations, the ridiculous syllogisms of the dialectic in which both are sometimes trapped, have a powerful and current political resonance. And his timely quotes from the mystical poetry of Santa Teresa de Ávila are an eloquent reminder of the undeniable sexual charge that underlies.

The group of adolescents, accused of participating in a Sabbath (that one) -that is, a black mass to worship Lucifer- for the simple fact of dancing in the forest, is described and acts with an adequate anachronistic register or if you want timeless.

The girls, led by Ana (notably Amalia Aberasturi), somehow little contaminated by the dominant macho and misogynistic culture, display a totally rational spontaneity and put it into play to face the judgment of the inquisitors, imposing at a certain moment a turn to the gloomy of the story by exposing and taking advantage of the comic stupidity of all fanaticism.

The harsh scenes of captivity, interrogations and torture are absolutely current and at the same time, in a round trip, they impose the stamp of "medieval" on all the authoritarianism, fundamentalism and political abuse that followed later.

The period reconstruction and staging, with strong pictorial chiaroscuro that refer to Goya are very successful, as well as the music and songs that the prisoners sing at times are overwhelming. Special mention for the use of the off-field, which particularly in a scene, constitutes a great decision.

We are taken to 17th (not 16th) century Spain, where the Inquisition is trying to find evidence of witchcraft among the peasantry. A group of young girl/women are found and accused. Imprisoned and tortured they concoct a bizarre mess of a story about what the witches sabbath is about.

It seems that by confusing the clergy and their soldiers by ridiculous rituals they try over-power them and escape.

Some have complained that "Why don't they try to argue their case?" Simply because it would be completely pointless - the whole inquisition wasn't about finding the truth, but to alleviate fears attributed to external forces (like witches). There was only one outcome of "trial" for those accused - death. Which is evident by one methods used - tow the accused to sea. If she floated she was a witch, guilty and should be killed, if she sank and drowned she was innocent.

The film depicts the atmosphere of these "trials" in a believable manner, and the misfortunes the unlucky women faced. Well worth a watch - don't expect anything in the way of horror movie, it is not.

I'm glad to read all negative reviews are from shallow moviegoers who are looking for magic tricks. This is a masterpiece in all aspects. Haunting, interesting, historical, deep, disturbing, sexy. Genius! Good plot, good acting, good music, good timing and pace... Very serious filmmaking.