six young women in rebellion against authority

The opinion of the “World” – Why not

Pablo Agüero, Argentinian filmmaker until then active in Patagonian lands, crosses the Atlantic and looks, for his fifth feature film, on an event of witchcraft that occurred in the Basque Country at the beginning of the 17th century.^e century. A judge – inspired by the historical figure of Pierre de Lancre (1553-1631), adviser to the Parliament of Bordeaux – is sent by the crown to a small peaceful parish to investigate six young women suspected, for having fun in the forest , to have practiced the Sabbath there.

Arrested, put in irons, they are questioned in turn, subjected to the question, that is to say tortured. Solidarity, united by suffering, they end up identifying with these figures of witches that the inquisitors are determined to want to surprise in them.

The film shows that witches and the sabbath, more than a belief or a circumstantial superstition, are above all phantasmic projections of authority towards the defendants and their youthful femininity, or, in other words, the neurosis of the accused. ‘a power that does not function other than by inventing its own culprits. Opposite, the six women are led to capture the stigma in question and turn it against their judges.

A “punk” performance

This act of rebellion is filmed by Agüero as a “punk” performance against patriarchy. Thus he consciously chooses to take liberties with the historical context to illustrate instead the path made by the figure of the witch in feminist theory, implanting in the process something of a contemporary consciousness within his characters.

Unfortunately, these tracks are arrowed for the spectator from the introductory scene (his scribe whispering to the judge: “The Sabbath, haven’t we dreamed of? “), the film then giving the impression of unfolding its program. In addition, the option of over-cutting here chosen amplifies the didactic character of the whole, and only too rarely lets Javier Aguirre’s Caravaggesque photography breathe, like the spectator’s free thought.