La
Nina Santa (The Holy Girl) Synopsis:
"The
Holy Girl," Martel intimately explores the burgeoning
sexuality and religious fervor of two teenage girls, Amalia
(Alche) and her best friend, Josefina (Zylberberg). Artfully
piecing together a mosaic of nuanced details, fragments
of sounds, and small moments, Martel creates a potent
and specific portrait of adolescent life. In the town
of La Ciénaga, Amalia lives with her attractive,
divorced mother, Helena (Morán), and her uncle,
Freddy (Urdapilleta), in the crumbling, run-down Hotel
Termas, which her family owns and runs. After choir rehearsals
the girls gather in the parish church for further instruction
in faith and vocation. What does God want from me? How
do I discern between the temptation of the Devil and the
calling of God? In between the teachings, the girls gossip
and whisper secretively. The lives of the girls and their
families intersect with those of a group of visiting orhinolaryngologists
(ear, nose and throat specialists) staying at the hotel
for a medical convention, including the married, middle-aged
Dr. Jano (Belloso). One day, a crowd of people gather
in the street to watch a man play an unusual, exotic instrument:
a theremin. Amalia is in the crowd when a man standing
behind her presses himself sexually against her. Later,
in the hotel, she discovers that this man is Dr. Jano,
one of the doctors attending the conference. Amalia finds
herself drawn to the Doctor and for days she spies on
him. Dr. Jano never notices her presence, but he does
notice her mother, Helena. Helena greatly enjoys the attention
from this man, but she has little hope as she knows he
is married and has a family. Days afterward Amalia confides
in Josefina what occurred in the street with Dr. Jano
and of her secret mission: to save one man from sin. Dr.
Jano becomes caught up in Amalia’s web of good intentions
and the respected doctor finds his world is on the brink
of collapse when her adolescent obsession sets off a chain
reaction of social catastrophe.
