¡Viva! Reviewer India Morgan considers Alfonso Zarauza’s Os Fenómenos.
Shakespeare once wrote ‘…to hold as ‘twere the mirror up to nature’ – or, in other words, art reflects life. In cinematic terms, this could not be truer for social realist films like Alfonso Zarauza’s Os Fenómenos, which reflects ordinary working lives with real authenticity. Tackling the Spanish economic crisis, Zarauza uses one woman’s story to give an insight into what the country has faced in recent years, and continues to endure.
Like Fernando León de Aranoa’s Los lunes al Sol, (but here, told from a female perspective) this film follows Neneta, who struggles to make ends meet in a country on the brink of financial collapse. A single parent, Neneta throws herself into work on a male-dominated construction site in an attempt to find stability for herself and baby Roi. We watch and squirm with the benefit of hindsight as she invests her future in an industry doomed for collapse, when the property bubble bursts and Spain plummets into economic crisis.
To capture authenticity, Zarauza returned to his home region of Galicia and set the film in the fishing town of Mugardos. Harsh exterior shots and a grey, exposed landscape are effective in depicting a bleak reality. The almost entirely Galician cast inject their language into the script and were trained in bricklaying for their roles. As a result, scenes of camaraderie between co-workers play out very naturally and suggest a genuine solidarity.
Neneta’s struggles are those to which many can relate – single parenthood, unemployment, gender discrimination, family feuds and relationship troubles – and here the director tells the story of a nation through individual experience.
The plot’s tendency to lose momentum is salvaged by a captivating performance from Lola Duenas, who effortlessly captures Neneta’s unflinching stoicism in the face of adversity. Neneta is the very essence of strength of character, and is reminiscent of the complex and powerful women in films by Ken Loach and Mike Leigh.
This film is sure to hit home to Spanish audiences and cinephiles across the world will appreciate Zarauza’s homage to the grit of British social realism. While the film effectively conveys an individual’s experience, it perhaps falls short in a wider examination of the situation in Spain. But it offers plenty to get a discussion going, and the Q&A with director Alfonso Zarauza offers the perfect opportunity to share your thoughts.
Os Fenómenos screens on Friday 6 and Saturday 7 March as part of our ¡Viva! Weekender. We are pleased to welcome director Alfonso Zarauza for a Q&A after the screening on Friday 6 March.