Elena Martín

Creatura

Edition 2023

Official Selection

112' - 2023 - Drama - Dialogue: Catalan

Director: Elena Martín Composer: Clara Aguilar With: Mila Borràs, Alex Brendemühl, Marc Cartanyà

New Voices Explore Zone

Elena Martín Gimeno's second film is a daring dive into the complex psychology of a woman who's the victim of sexual repression. This fluid, physical cinema with fantasy accents explores the close relationship between guilt, shame and desire.

When Mila moves in with her lover and her libido fails, it triggers a trip into the past in order to understand her difficult relationship with sex. Mila confronts traumatic experiences from her childhood in the hope of reconciling with her body. Spanning several life stages, this elegant portrait shows a woman trying to break free, with her body as a battleground. With Creature, Martín Gimeno effortlessly reaffirms her place in the brilliant generation of young, Catalan directors such as Carla Simón and Clara Roquet (who co-wrote this film). After her debut Júlia Ist (FFG2019), a naturalistic portrait of a young woman, Martín Gimeno returns to Ghent with this powerful follow-up that is drenched in an elusive cinematic language and earned her a well-deserved prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

“A story that addresses our relationship with desire and the body. The body as a space of pleasure and pain, of oppression and freedom, about all that is most hidden in it […] and that consequently leads us to question ourselves about what sex says about us.” – Cineuropa