When a red stain is a problem: the taboo of the first rule from magical realism

It's April's eleventh birthday, and her mother is dressing her in a tight white dress. The girl, her hair in a bun, seems uncomfortable with so much rigidity. "Cheer up that face!" her mother snaps. But April isn't looking forward to a family meal where her grandmother opines too much about her weight or her face. "She's pale!" the woman remarks. Under the table, the little girl notices a red spot on her leg, which soon spreads to her immaculate princess-style dress. It's time for the photos, and the frightened preteen runs to the bathroom. There, the bright red color permeates the scene and guides the young girl to a fantastic encounter with her own body.

April , centered on a girl's first period, is Alexandra Iglesias's debut short film, which is competing in the official section of the Cerdanya Film Festival after its screening at the Malaga Film Festival. "The short film was born from the desire to explain how we relate to our own bodies as children and how we often lack information, which leads to fear and insecurity from a young age. I wanted to speak from that childhood, that silence at a vulnerable age, and we used menstruation to address the topic with a different, riskier approach, which is magical realism, a beautiful way of explaining something that is difficult to explain, something so intimate," the director from Jávea tells this newspaper, adding that the process of accepting our bodies is "long."

For the role of Abril, Iglesias enlisted the talent of Sofía Otero, the young protagonist of 20,000 Species of Bees and winner of the Silver Bear for Best Performance at the Berlin Film Festival. She also recently appeared in Los Aitas and Cuatro Paredes . “It was a gift and love at first sight. I met her at the Berlinale, before the premiere of 20,000 Species of Bees , and I was captivated by her energy and maturity. When I spoke with her, I saw that she had the ability to capture this role, especially in a short film that is a character. Sofía is an old soul, an adult actress in a child's body, and she was able to grasp deeper concepts than a child her age. She understood the project very well and always nailed it,” he emphasizes.

Sofía Otero is an old soul, an adult actress in a child's body. Alexandra Iglesias Director

By opting for a magical tone, the 17-minute short film faced the complication of showing living blood. “I didn't want it all to be digital, but rather for her to experience it on set and for it to be tangible. I also wanted to stay away from gore. In audiovisual material, blood seems to represent violence, and I wanted to show blood that gives life,” she explains. In the first sequence, both the dress and the bow, and the shots, display a “compressed” staging to “reflect this family that seems to be given no space to express itself and communicate. I wanted to create an environment where a stain is a problem. The act of running away, hiding, covering up, shame... it's all there.”

The director believes there's still a lot of taboo surrounding the female body. "Yes, it's talked about more, but bringing this topic up still stirs up a certain insecurity. That's why I wanted to bring it to the screen. We need to talk about it and normalize it 200% without any kind of cover-up because, in the end, everything feminine in history has been tabooed, and it's something that's built from childhood."

Catalan actress Cristina Brondo plays the protagonist's mother. "She's also a mother and understood very well the type of character I was looking for. She's a mother very concerned about how her daughter presents herself to the world. I didn't want to portray her as a malicious person; she has a way of acting just like she's been taught. Although she represents the values that have been passed down over time, she's just another victim." Therefore, the character of the grandmother, played by Isabel Rocatti, shows that everything is generational. "Unconsciously, we reflect all that upbringing."

Abril's mother is very concerned about how her daughter appears to the world. She's another victim of the values that have been passed down over time.

Iglesias, 26, who has lived in Barcelona for eight years, confesses that the purpose of this piece is to "stir up dialogue and make us consider how to show and address these issues with our children." Visually, the contrast between white and red is striking. "The idea with the hyper-white and impersonal context was to talk about the state of society today, with images of perfect bodies and photos. It's a bit of a metaphor for a perfection that can't be inhabited." Abril features Clara Peya on the soundtrack. "It's a music that lets the scene breathe. It accompanies rather than underlines, and at the same time, it's vulnerable, like the moment the protagonist is experiencing."

The short film is shot in both Spanish and Catalan. “I think it's wonderful that bilingualism exists here because sometimes from the outside, it seems like Catalans only want to speak Catalan, and when you're here, you realize the two languages coexist. That's why I wanted it to be bilingual,” concludes the director, who is eager to return to filming another short film that will also deal with how we relate to our bodies as children, but with a different theme. “I still feel I lack the maturity to make the leap to feature films, and I want to be prepared,” humbly states this young woman who promises to make a career in Spain's thriving female audiovisual scene.