22/09/2024 - The Spanish actress-director is back with a film based on real events, about a trailblazer who defied those around her and dared to report a politician in her town for harassment

(© Iñaki Fajardo/SSIFF)

The Nevenka Fernández case took up a lot of column inches in the media in the early 2000s. More than 20 years have passed, but Icíar Bollaín wanted to show her support for that figure, who invoked “#MeToo” before the concept even existed. This is the topic of I Am Nevenka [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Icíar Bollaín
film profile], a feature taking part in the official competition section of the 72nd San Sebastián Film Festival.

Cineuropa: You previously broached the topic of abuse in Take My Eyes [+see also:
trailer
film profile].
Icíar Bollaín: It’s the same subject matter, but at the same time it’s not, because in I Am Nevenka, we talk about harassment in the public sphere – it’s perpetrated by a powerful person. Meanwhile, in that other film, it was an ordinary guy and happened in private. That was fiction, while this movie is based on a real-life case. In addition, Nevenka wasn’t able to report it, because harassment in the workplace wasn’t even enshrined in the penal code. Yes, I am going back to an abuse trial, but everything surrounding it is different. It’s incredible that 20 years after what happened, it’s still very relevant, sadly.

But is society more sensitive to such matters?
The social perception of it has changed, thankfully. In I Am Nevenka, we thought about portraying the harassment from within: why doesn’t she leave? And why does she go home? Because you are paralysed, you feel small, and your judgement is blurred when something like this happens to you.

Harassment and abuse profoundly shake up victims’ lives, as is also shown by the series Querer [+see also:
series review
trailer
interview: Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
series profile], which is also showing here at San Sebastián, underlining how fear can paralyse us.
And confusion, too. The hardest thing to reflect was that confusion which the harasser, Ismael Álvarez, prompts in Nevenka: now I might be kidding, then I might not be; one minute I’m your buddy, the next I’m not; I’ll give you a job, and the next minute, you’re a piece of shit. He’s a textbook manipulator, but it’s all effective. As she says to the psychoanalyst: I don’t know if I’m going mad; I don’t recognise myself. These are things that we talk about and attempt to convey to the viewer so that they can feel them personally.

This real-life case was previously covered in a documentary and a book.
Yes, a book by Juan José Millás, published in 2004, and a testimonial documentary. We considered the approach of making the viewer feel something, putting them there with her in that tunnel, that spiderweb, and also empathising with her escape from it, feeling her liberation. Fiction allows you to do that.

I Am Nevenka is a Movistar Plus+ original. Was that how it originally started?
After Maixabel [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Icíar Bollaín
film profile], its producers Koldo Zuazua and Juan Moreno told me: “Have a look into this case and team up with Isa Campo again.” We saw a great story in the topic.

Maixabel was also based on a true story.
Even when they’re fiction, my stories draw inspiration from reality. I always do research, I read up on things, and I talk to experts. Sometimes, more things can spring from reality than from your own mind. Then, you flesh them out, but there are many topics that it would be impossible to write about if they didn’t take place in the real world. Also, it's a challenge to bring this to the big screen because, in actual fact, the Nevenka case went on for three years, and a lot of it had to be condensed in the screenplay. We were also interested in talking about ourselves 20 years ago: why society did nothing, turned a blind eye and didn’t understand when she reported Ismael.

Sometimes people don’t want to see certain cases of abuse…
The people who are closest to it don’t want to see it: it doesn’t suit them, and they don’t want to rock the boat. It’s like when you witness harassment in the workplace – finding out about what’s going on makes life more difficult for you because you have to take a stance.

Do you think that Nevenka was judged by society because she was pretty?
Because she was pretty and she was young. After that, people used the adjectives “ambitious”, “opportunistic” and “deceitful” about her.

And she remained alone in the face of danger.
She had some good swordsmen by her side when she was trying to defend herself, but it was like David and Goliath because the mayor in Ponferrada, Ismael Álvarez, was all-powerful. For many people from the city, he was a great politician who had done many things, and who worked hard on relationships, favours and influences.

But it was impossible to shoot in the actual places where the events took place.
The people at city hall didn’t reply to us: the local government there is sympathetic to Ismael, with a councillor who replaced Nevenka. It was difficult to shoot in Ponferrada, but filming in Zamora was fabulous.

(Translated from Spanish)