The Red Virgin movie review: Impeccable performances anchor this tale of fatherhood and principles

A scene from ‘The Red Virgin’ Photo Credit: @AmazonMGMStudios/YouTube

Are you familiar with the term ‘eugenics’? A quick Google search reveals that it is “a set of beliefs and practices aimed at improving the genetic quality of human populations”. Director Paula Ortiz, in her recent Prime Video outing red virginTakes the blood-stained pages from history and turns them into a biopic of one of the many figures whose actions were forgotten after the Spanish Civil War.

red virgin Based on the real-life story of Aurora (Najwa Nimri), the eugenicist and feminist mother of Hildegart (Alba Planas), who she conceived as a scientific experiment to represent the woman of the future. Born as the ideal prototype, Hildegart became an eccentric individual; A child political activist who gave conferences on feminism and female sexuality even before she was a teenager. But as Hildegart reaches her late teens, Aurora’s authoritarian hold on her daughter loosens a bit, leading to a reaction between the two from which there is no return.

Set in the Second Spanish Republic, Paula Ortiz has an abundance of material to work with and she does admirable work with it. But it is the performance of its flagship Alba Planas and money heist-The legendary Najwa Nimri, who turns this well-oiled machinery into a working heart, bringing a whole sense of warmth to what could have been a prim story. The film is primarily based on the compelling mother-daughter relationship and how despite their physical closeness, the similarities they have initially – from their affection for each other and their mutual ideologies – fade away as the story progresses. changes and they gradually move apart. It is brilliant work on the acting front which makes his character all the more effective.

Despite its straightforward narrative, the film deeply delves into the concepts of socialism, feminism, and sexual liberation – which also formed the roots of Hildegart’s politics – and allows us to watch a family slowly fall apart from within. In an attempt to achieve perfection with her daughter, Aurora, unaware, becomes a fascist against whom she fought her whole life. The comparison his daughter makes to him at the end of the film might have come across as a harsh insult to him; With Aurora being a control freak, she is asked what separates her from a man.

Thankfully, the sharp lines, well translated into English, highlight the intensity of the diverse needs of the peoplered virgin Two leads. Whether it’s lines spoken by the young Hildegart, like “Is the prodigy somehow exclusive to the male gender?” Or her mother’s extremely clever one-liners like “Love and revolution are incompatible” and “You have no father, child; that’s why we are free”, the dialogues can undoubtedly be a pillar of support for the film. Aurora’s The advice to keep “Freud in your vagina, Nietzsche in your chest and Marx in your head” and how there is a sad callback to this later in the film is some of Paula Ortiz’s finest directorial work. One of the touches.

The Gothic-esque visuals enhance the tone and feel of the film. Part of me couldn’t help but wonder what a mother-daughter duo, in a different universe, would have made for the perfect Morticia and Wednesday addams familyThe film suddenly turns from an interesting drama into a heart-wrenching thriller. Thankfully, this transition feels like a series of notes building up to a faster tempo rather than a jarring shift in tonal power.

red virgin This is a brilliant biopic that also works as an interesting mother-daughter thriller equipped with great acting and an impeccable screenplay.

The Red Virgin is currently streaming on Prime Video