ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies.

IN The Holy Girl (La Nina Santa), the anguish of adolescence is further complicated by the burden of a strict religious upbringing. The second feature from Argentinean director Lucrecia Martel offers an intriguing portrait of a teenage girl’s passage into adulthood.
  
Oppressive, ambiguous and demanding, it has the feel of a half-remembered dream rather than the clarity of a more conventional story. Living in a wintry hotel with her divorced mother, Amalia (Maria Alche) is a typical youngster dealing with all the confusion and emotion of her teenage years. She is also a devout student at her Catholic religious classes.
 
Beguiled by the idea of service and sacrifice, she begins to wonder what role she might play in God’s great plan. A medical conference brings a vast influx of doctors to the hotel. One day, Amalia is standing at a window display when Dr Jano (Carlos Belloso) appears behind her and starts to rub up against her.
  
She decides that this is a sign and that her mission is to save Jano from sin. Her decision is the start of a shifting network of relationships in which the urge to save inadvertently leads to the possibility of destruction.
  
Favouring extreme close-ups and the cramped interiors of the hotel, Martel underlines the claustrophobic nature of a film that is strong on atmosphere but rather less transparent in its meaning. There is certainly an element of satire directed at the middle-classes and the role of religion in Argentinean society but the tone of the tale and a rather abrupt ending mean that this remains a film for arthouse fans rather than mainstream cinemagoers.
  
THE HOLY GIRL
Limited release, selected cinemas
Director: Lucrecia Martel
Writer: Lucrecia Martel
Stars: Maria Alche, Mercedes Moran, Carlos Belloso, Julieta Zylberberg
Certificate: 15
Running time: 106 mins
Country: Argentina
Year: 2004
 

© Allan Hunter, 2005