Carmen and Lola

Carmen and Lola is a charming, Spanish coming-of-age movie about two gypsy girls who fall in love. The first feature-length film by director Arantxa Echevarría and featuring primarily actors whose appearance in the film marks their onscreen debut, Carmen and Lola is a moving, charming film.

Carmen and Lola explores the gypsy community in Spain. Ignorant as I am, I hadn’t realized the level of racism this culture faces. Frankly, it’s not a culture I think about a lot. Carmen and Lola brought a community I hardly consider to vibrant life. Large family gatherings like Carmen’s engagement party look joyous. The characters portrayed in this movie clearly get a sense of family from their community.

Overall, the gypsy community comes across as full of life and like a genuine community or large family. The best scenes in are the ones that focus most strongly on the gypsy community as those are the ones that feel most alive

But of course, it can’t all be good. There is major stigma around homosexuality within the gypsy community given their heavy Christian religious roots. There is also an expectation of rigid gender roles that Lola and eventually Carmen rebel against.

The fact that there are good things in their community is what makes it so heartbreaking when Carmen and Lola begin to realize they won’t be accepted. There would be no tragedy if there wasn’t a sense of loss and Carmen and Lola’s feelings could cause them to lose a great deal.

What I love about Carmen and Lola’s relationship is the emphasis on physical contact. It’s often minimal but means so much. The first time their hands brush over a pack of cigarettes or Lola placing her hand on Carmen’s bare stomach when they dance made my breath catch in my throat. It took my back to being that age when even such a small piece of physical contact was so large.

From those beginnings, their physical intimacy only grows. Carmen and Lola seem almost magnetically drawn to each other, almost always touching. This casual, constant physical intimacy was really stunning and frankly, made me jealous.

I adore Lola as a character particularly. She’s younger than I am and I still found her inspiration. Lola has the strength, confidence and defiance that at age 17 I couldn’t dream of. Even today ,I don’t have a fraction of it. Lola is a character who is simultaneously pessimistic about her life but she goes for it anyway. She fearlessly pursues the girl she wants and the life she dreams of. Even in the most tenuous of situations, Lola refuses to deny her identity or her feels. Seeing her stand up to her parents and religious leaders demanding to know why her feelings of love are wrong is powerful and inspirational.

I wish I’d seen this character when I was a teenager. My life was privileged enough to not need to stand up to parents or religious leaders. But maybe I could have found inspiration in Lola’s bravery to actual make a move on a girl I like, let alone a “straight” girl.

For a cast of primarily first-time onscreen actors, the performances in Carmen and Lola are exceptional. The two leads carry their weight but I was most blown away by the acting of Moreno Borja and Rafaela León who play Lola’s parents. Both give raw, naturalistic performances of extreme emotion. Their reaction to discovering Lola’s identity is heavily emotional exceptionally well-played by all involved.

All the performances in Carmen and Lola are great. As a nitpick though, Rosy Rodriguez who plays Carmen in no way looks 17 to me. I’ve been unable to find out the actress’s actual age so maybe this is my bad but to me, she looked like an adult woman as opposed to a teenage girl. That could get a bit distracting.

The other aspect I found distracting was the shakiness of the camera. It was sometimes hard to focus on scenes because of the small movements that accompany shooting something with a handheld camera. Some sort of stabilization of shots either during shooting or in post-production would’ve helped a lot

Overall, Carmen and Lola is an above average coming-of-age film. The few problems I have with it don’t overrule the positives of this movie. It has great performances and characters I care about. Carmen and Lola feels alive as a movie. It is vibrant and thrumming with energy. There is great potential shown from all who were involved in its making.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

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