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CREATURA, BY ELENA MARTÍN GIMENO
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There's an unnerving veil hanging over the windswept beaches and quaint rural milieus that make up "Creatura," a brave and remarkably self-assured personal excavation film. Hailing from Catalan filmmaker and actress Elena Martín Gimeno, whose performance as the central figure Mila is both reassuring and vulnerable, "Creatura" follows one woman's relationship to her body, desire, and sexuality, beginning with adulthood and eventually leading to her earliest childhood memories.
The film observes an erratic adult Mila as she drifts through a series of adolescent memories. As various chapters from youthful summers unfurl like dreams, she attempts to heal her relationship with her body. Elegantly crafted and brazen in perspective, the film was awarded Best European Film at the 2023 Cannes Directors' Fortnight.
It's provocative, yes, but not overly titillating. Gimeno's film is honest about the way girls are alienated from their own desires at every stage of development. Young Mila is shamed for seeking pleasure, her natural curiosity met with disgust and unease. As accustomed as we are to seeing distorted stories of female sexuality onscreen, it's impossible not to spend much of the movie braced for some horrible trauma to be revealed. Mercifully, one never comes. But the fact that even small transgressions hold such power over Mila years later is its own tragedy, too. Under Gimeno's deepening gaze, there are no small infractions. When it comes to sexuality, every intimated lesson becomes gospel...
BY JUDE DRY
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'Creatura' Review: Sexual Desire Unearthed in Provocative Memory Poem - IndieWire
