The Holy Girl

“Set in the town of Salta, nestled between the ankles of the Andes and the toes of a nearby rain forest, The Holy Girl physically takes place at a hotel hosting a conference of ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialists. Spiritually it takes place in the impressionable minds of two teenage girls, Amalia (María Alché), whose divorced mother and uncle own the hotel, and her chum, Josefina (Julieta Zylberberg). The moody friends may go to Bible class to hear the voice of God, but they’re finding it increasingly hard to tune out their own carnal rumblings.“Director Lucrecia Martel gives us fragments of faces, conversations, scenes. She doesn’t give us a conventional narrative; she layers different points of view and forces us to infer the drama. On the basis of her tilted worldview and humid atmospherics, I am prepared to call Martel the Jane Campion of Argentina.“Amalia’s disgruntled mother, Helena (Mercedes Morán), is captivated by a hotel guest, Dr. Jano (Carlos Belloso). He in turn gets his pleasure from rubbing up against the rumps of young girls in public places. When Amalia is thus violated (as haunting theremin music is played by a street musician), she vows to ‘save’ him.“Given Martel’s narrative indirection and her oblique camera angles, it’s hard to say whether Amalia’s spiritual awakening coincides with her erotic awakening or whether the moody beauty has confused salvation with seduction. Martel’s film is alert to any and every possibility. Hypnotic, swoony and seductive, The Holy Girl will leave you breathless.� – Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer