"In my beginning is my end, in my end is my beginning."

(T.S. Eliot)

Nina returns after 30 years to the coastal town where she grew up until she was 15, living there with her father. Her mother died when she was very young.

She arrives at night, while it’s raining continuously, carrying a large bag with a hunting rifle.

She stays in a hotel, and they recognize her—she has become a famous actress.

She is seeking revenge against a famous writer whom the town is honoring: Pedro.

A strange film, with music in classic 1960s tones, a thriller with Hitchcockian touches, with melodramatic and theatrical tones.

A confrontation with her childhood through her friend Blas, memories retracing her adolescence, friendships, loves, studies, and her passion for acting.

Above all, the encounter with that writer, against whom she seeks revenge, who had once captivated her: Pedro. The new partner of the mother of her teenage crush, a man who gave her a great deal of attention, seduced her, promised her a future as an actress through his prestigious contacts in Madrid, and, most importantly, introduced her to an intimacy for which she was not ready.

Nina is fifteen years old and still doesn't know what she wants, what she likes, what she truly desires, and, above all, what she does not want.

Due to a pregnancy, the writer forces her to leave her hometown without telling anyone, to go to Madrid, terminate the pregnancy, and focus on her career.

Nina is now a mature woman, but she has not forgotten anything; her resentment is understandably fierce, and what disturbs her is discovering that everyone in that place knew but pretended not to.

A disturbing scene during her first sexual encounter with that man will resurface in the cathartic final scene when Nina finally finds herself alone on the terrace facing the sea, in front of the man who scarred her life forever, to humiliate him, force him to ask for forgiveness, and address him with a question that will serve as a verdict.

Drawing inspiration from The Seagull by Anton Chekhov and Nina, a play written by José Ramón Fernández, Jaurrieta transforms it into a work of her own—part western, largely a revenge movie about a woman who cannot and will not surrender to a past that is ever more present, especially in the face of the hypocrisy of a small town that was silent then and continues hypocritically to avoid taking a stand against a violence inflicted by a famous writer still celebrated as a hero.

A dramatic existential journey reconstructs a screenplay attentive to the sensitivity of a woman in the making, who does not yield to the passage of time, which instead of erasing, fuels the sense of violence and injustice suffered.

The insurmountable psychological journey is condensed into a gesture that becomes a metaphor, a simile, but also an allegory and a symbol of an abuse that has become destiny.

The abuse passively accepted becomes moral. From that irrevocable moment, others will suffer the same fate.

(Roberto Morpurgo)

23-Nov-2024 by Beatrice