21/09/2005

The transformation of Tangiers, seen by a woman unable to adapt to a new reality. The wretched life of Juanita Narboni is a nostalgic homage to a city, once a paradise on earth, where different cultures, languages and religions managed to live together without conflict. Directed by Farida Benlyazid, it is the fourth Spanish title in the official section of this year's edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival .

"The most amazing thing about Ángel Vázquez's novel is that it shows Tangiers from the inside", said Benlyazid, for whom the process of adaptation was like a marathon, ever since she was offered the book by the writer himself many years ago. Working with scriptwriter Gerardo Bellod, they had the difficult task to bring to screen almost forty years of the recent history of Tangiers, from the days of the Spanish Civil war to Tangiers' integration in Morocco in the 60's. However, according to Bellod, more complicated than portraying the historical background, was the process of adapting the dialogues imagined by the main character and placing them within a chronological plot.

Indeed, the film is all about the thoughts of Juanita Narboni – an English-Andalucian woman from Tangiers –, transformed into dialogues or monologues. You might try to sympathise with Juanita, but at a certain point you simply can't help judging her, especially since that is all she does for 101 minutes: providing us with judgemental statements about everyone else in the film. Juanita is not a typical heroine. She is funny but unpleasant, tough but lonely, tolerant but envious, romantic but bitter, stuck between her catholic sexually repressed education and the "modern" liberated behaviour of her younger sister. Mariola Fuentes efficiently captures the contradictions of the character and gives us a convincing portrait of a woman, who remains in Tangiers, when all the others abandoned it. When Juanita is old and lonely (but as always imagining the dialogues with her "mama", who died when Juanita was still a young girl) Tangiers has already lost its status of international city and Arab culture seemed to have erased the traces of multiculturalism. "Tangiers is a myth and myths cannot be described", concludes the director.

The wretched life of Juanita Narboni was produced by ZAP Producciones (Spain) and Tangitania Films (Morocco). International sales are managed by Mercedes Borruel.