The Holy Girl
Lucrecia Martel
April 10 - 15, 2018
Inflamed by a combination of warped love and curiosity, a parochial-school student begins to stalk her molester with a clammy ardor in Martel’s provocative second feature. Screening with Dead King (1995), about a wife trying to get away from her abusive husband.
A moody, moony parochial-school student named Amalia (María Alche) comes alive when a stranger rubs up against her in a crowd. The culprit happens to be a prestigious doctor, who is staying in a hotel run by Amalia’s divorcee mother for a medical convention. Inflamed by a combination of warped love and curiosity, the pious-perverse girl begins to stalk her molester with a clammy ardor. Martel’s provocative second feature more than fulfills the promise made with her brilliant debut: The Holy Girl is a coolly knowing dramatization of the thrumming sexuality of teenage girls, drawn in equal parts to religious fervor and erotic mischief. An NYFF42 selection.
Preceded by:
Dead King / Rey muerto
Argentina, 1995, 12m
Spanish with English subtitles
A wife tries to get away from her abusive husband in this early work by Martel, later featured in Historias Breves I, a 1995 omnibus film responsible for heralding the New Argentine Cinema movement.
The Holy Girl screens as part of a complete Lucrecia Martel retrospective. See the full schedule.
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