Sexual awakening is enough of an emotionally confusing experience without heaping religious instruction on top. No wonder that, in a stew over Catholic morality and carnal repression, teenager Amalia becomes convinced that a pervert rubbing his crotch against her in a crowd is a sign from God. Theres no sense that this is a forbidden love affair on her part: she stalks him because it is now her vocation to save him.
Lucrecia Martels second feature was well received at Cannes and has subsequently created something of a buzz on the festival circuit. Its a subtle, insidious film that leaves its mark by creating a sensually humid atmosphere, where the decorative decay of the hotel reflects the moral lapse of the characters.
Martel sets up plenty of opposites mother or daughter as object of lust for the man; physical love versus spiritual love; doctor as diseased pervert; medicine and religion as healing forces allowing the films dramatic tensions to emerge slowly around and between them. She keeps the camera close, letting the actors faces, not expositional dialogue, do the work. The result is a film thats close to Robert Bresson in its eye for detail and spiritual suffering.