{"id":122428,"date":"2023-02-04T16:34:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-04T11:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.imageantra.com\/el-agua-2022-opinion-it-is-a-hypnotic-first-film-although-it-went-unnoticed-in-theaters-one-of-the-most-special-candidates-for-the-goya-awards\/"},"modified":"2023-02-04T16:34:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-04T11:04:00","slug":"el-agua-2022-opinion-it-is-a-hypnotic-first-film-although-it-went-unnoticed-in-theaters-one-of-the-most-special-candidates-for-the-goya-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.imageantra.com\/el-agua-2022-opinion-it-is-a-hypnotic-first-film-although-it-went-unnoticed-in-theaters-one-of-the-most-special-candidates-for-the-goya-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"‘El Agua’ (2022) opinion: It is a hypnotic first film although it went unnoticed in theaters: one of the most special candidates for the Goya Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At the end of last year, ‘El Agua’, the first film by Elena L\u00f3pez Riera, premiered. Despite the fact that he barely scratched a couple of nominations for the 2023 Goya Awards, it is a stimulating vision of rural Spain<\/strong> and finally it can be seen in streaming through Filmin.<\/p>\n

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Take the water inside<\/h2>\n

In a town in Alicante threatened with the river overflowing, there is a legend about women destined to disappear with each flood because they carry “the water inside”<\/strong>. She believes that she seems attached to Ana, a teenager who lives with her mother and her grandmother, whom the rest of the town have always looked at with bad eyes.<\/p>\n

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‘El agua’ is the first feature film by Elena L\u00f3pez Riera. It was screened in the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022 and was quietly released in Spanish theaters on November 4. At this year’s Goyas, the film opted for the categories Best New Director and Best New Actress<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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In recent years, we have had film debuts by Spanish directors who they brought us closer to their vision of reality from a very everyday approach<\/strong>: Carla Sim\u00f3n with ‘Summer 1993’, Bel\u00e9n Funes with ‘La hija de un ladr\u00f3n’, Elena Mart\u00edn with ‘J\u00falia ist’ or Celia Rico with ‘Journey to a mother’s room’.<\/p>\n

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Elena L\u00f3pez Riera also opts for a naturalist approach to get closer to the life of this adolescent and her environment. From its first chords you breathe truth<\/strong> in Ana’s conversations with her friends and, at the same time, it is perceived that there is something else in the environment.<\/p>\n

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That is one of the main contributions of the film: magical realism. Everyday moments are intermingled with folklore<\/strong> of the town and all their beliefs around water. Water as a force of nature but also as a kind of mystical entity, capable of reclaiming “what is its own” in a cyclical way.<\/p>\n

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L\u00f3pez Riera’s approach is fresh and original<\/strong>by intertwining mystical elements with other practically documentary ones, such as the declarations of the town’s neighbors who tell different stories about water and those girls who “carry the water inside” throughout the film.<\/p>\n

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The history It has touches of coming of age<\/strong>with that first love and the complex relationship between Ana and her mother, and at the same time reflects on the representation of women as a passive figure<\/strong> in traditional narratives and how it has evolved as new voices have risen to tell their own stories.<\/p>\n

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