The Red Squirrel
| La ardilla roja The Red Squirrel | |
|---|---|
 Movie poster | |
| Directed by | Julio Médem |
| Produced by |
Fernando de Garcillán Enrique López Lavigne |
| Written by | Julio Médem |
| Starring |
Emma Suárez Nancho Novo |
| Music by |
Txetxo Bengoetxea Alberto Iglesias |
| Cinematography | Gonzalo F. Berridi |
| Edited by | María Elena Sáinz de Rozas |
| Distributed by | Colifilms Distribution |
Release date | 21 April 1993 |
Running time | 114 minutes |
| Country | Spain |
| Language | Spanish, German |
The Red Squirrel (Spanish: La ardilla roja) is a 1993 drama film by the Spanish filmmaker Julio Médem, starring Emma Suárez and Nancho Novo.
Plot
Jota (Novo), a failed musician whose girlfriend has recently left him, is about to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge when a girl on a motorcycle, Sofía (Suárez), crashes off it. Rushing to help her, he discovers she has lost her memory, even forgetting her name. After telling the paramedics and staff at the hospital that she is his girlfriend, he later tells her the same. He invents an entire identity for her, giving her the name Lisa, and a history of their relationship according to his own fantasies. With the hospital psychiatrist starting to become suspicious, he spirits her out of the hospital and away on a trip to the 'Ardilla Roja' campsite, which he claims they have been planning for some while. As their relationship becomes intimate, their behaviour sparks the suspicions of a family of fellow campers (Karra Elejalde and María Barranco) and it becomes clear that Lisa/Sofía's memory is not entirely missing and she is hiding her own past secrets—notably, the existence of a psychotic ex-boyfriend, Félix (Carmelo Gómez), who is rampaging across the country in search of her.
Basque identity
Though Medem is a Basque, and many of his films have dealt explicitly with Basque regional identity, a Basque theme is not apparent in The Red Squirrel. The main characters are played by non-Basques (Suárez is from Madrid, Novo from Galicia, Barranco indelibly Andalusian in popular consciousness after her role in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown), and much of the action is set at the campsite in La Rioja, a liminal region between the Basque country and Castile.
Nevertheless, touches of Basqueness are apparent. Major characters' names are Basque (Elisa Machinbarrena Fuentes and Jota Fernández Arregui) and place names are given in their Euskera forms rather than Spanish (Donostia for San Sebastián). Attention is given specifically to questions of identity. When Jota checks in at the campsite, for instance, he signs "vasco" (Basque) as his nationality. There are also recurrent echoes of the semi-mythic past that Basque nationalism has reconstructed for the Basque country: video clips of Jota's group Las moscas (The Flies) are reminiscent of the Basque country's supposed pre-Indo-European stone age ancestry; settings including the forest, lake and zoo evoke mythology or ruralised narratives of Basque history. Finally, if violence in a Basque context has a very specific connotation—that of ETA—which is represented in Félix's random violence and self-mutilation, then Lisa/Sofía's amnesia can be read as an attempt on the part of Basque society to forget and escape from the violence of the past and establish a new identity for the Basque country that is not founded around ETA.[1]
Português de Portugal (tradução) Embora Julio Medem seja do País Basco, e muitos dos seus filmes tenham lidado explicitamente com a identidade basca, no filme O Esquilo Vermelho, o tema da identidade basca, à primeira vista, parece não se encontrar presente. As principais personagens são desempenhadas por atores não bascos: Emma Suárez é de Madrid, Nancho Novo é da Galiza, Maria Barranco é da Andaluzia e disso não restam dúvidas no imaginário popular, após o seu papel em Mulheres à Beira de Um Ataque de Nervos. Uma boa parte da ação do filme acontece no parque de campismo de La Rioja, situado entre o País Basco e Castela. Contudo, há pormenores que conduzem à questão basca. Os nomes da personagens principais são bascos – Elisa Machinbarrena Fuentes e Jota Fernández Arregui – e os nomes dos locais são em língua basca, Euskera, e não tanto em Castelhano; fala-se em Donostia para referir San Sebastián. Há questões específicas de identidade, às quais se dá atenção: quando Jota faz o check in no parque de campismo, por exemplo, identifica-se como vasco, ou seja, basco, de nacionalidade. Há também ecos recorrentes de um passado semimitológico que terá alimentado o nacionalismo basco e reconstruído o País Basco: o vídeo clip da banda de Jota, Las moscas, apresenta-se como uma reminiscência do País Basco, supostamente de uma era ancestral, com narrativas da história basca do período neolítico, com um cariz rural onde se incluem a floresta, o lago e a fauna. Por fim, se a violência num contexto basco tem uma conotação específica – ligada à ETA – que é representada através da violência e da automutilação de Félix, então a amnésia de Lisa/Sofía pode ser interpretada como uma tentativa por parte da sociedade basca de esquecer e escapar à violência do passado e estabelecer uma nova identidade para o País Basco.
References
- ↑ P.J. Smith: "Julio Medem's La ardilla roja (The red squirrel): a transparent society?" in: Cinema, literature and sexuality in Spain and Cuba: 1984-1993 London/New York: Verso, 1996; pp. 128–45.