Normally when thinking of the north of Madrid, what comes to mind are wooded areas full of chalets and luxury homes. In the same mountains but in a very different reality they meet Cata and Alexthe two young women who star ‘Dragonflies’ and they have spent their entire lives in a suburban neighborhood and are suffocated by the lack of opportunities.
The movie of Luc Knowles is a portrait of an entire generation with Milena Smith and Olivia Baglivi to the forefront to delve into how an oppressive environment and lack of opportunities take its toll on its protagonists.After winning the Silver Biznaga at the Malaga Film Festival, this 16 of September.
A not so paradisiacal environment
As you can hear in the trailer for ‘Dragonflies’, the scenario deceives. Despite the green and idyllic surroundings of the neighborhood of Cata and Álex, the situation of those who live there is very precarious and is far from the luxuries that can be found a few kilometers away.
Their lives are far from idyllic, with Cata caring for her sick father on her own and Álex still dealing with her mother’s suicide while babysitting her niece so her sister can work. They don’t have a job and that dream of one day escaping from the neighborhood together seems to get further and further away with no expectations in sight, so they spend the days smoking joints and the nights partying to find a break.
‘Dragonflies’ shows us the most precarious side of a social class, where it is not easy to get out of the box in which you have played and the opportunities are few. It is a very bleak portrait and one that is not kidding when giving you raw things and how they are, yesin no Instagram filter to glamorize the whole thing. Drugs and crazy nights are crutches to escape, something that is clear from the first moment without any romanticization.
The absolute stars of ‘Dragonflies’ are precisely Milena Smit (‘Parallel Mothers’) and Olivia Baglivi (‘Rosalinda’), who they manage to fully elevate the characters of Cata and Álex and make them real and full of nuances. They both have amazing chemistry on screen, and the two friends have their own learning curve and acceptance of the future that develops little by little and very naturally during the plot.
The whole film balances a certain tone of melancholy, as if we are seeing a memory through the eyes of different people, and also the constant weight of despair and hopelessness that not everything is going to work out. Yes, it is true that at times it has a somewhat irregular rhythm and suffers from certain ellipses where you have to accept certain things that have happened behind the scenes, with a somewhat abrupt ending that does not let you see the final twist coming at all.
Knowles already directed the video clip for ‘Wondering’ by John Vermont, which starred Baglivi and with which it seems that he laid the foundations for much of what we see in ‘Dragonflies’, including inspiration for some scenes that have almost been traced. But with ‘Dragonflies‘, especially thanks to the work of its leading actresses, the story achieves a real weight that goes beyond unconnected scenes.
His intimate and sour tone may not be for everyone, and we must anticipate that it is not a happy movie to pass the time quietly. Life is not a fairy tale if you don’t have the right supports, and ‘Dragonflies’ is responsible for reminding us from the eyes of a generation.