A film in three parts, each focusing on a different woman, but all haunted by the same unknown and invisible figure, only perceptible if seen through the camera’s gaze. Pedro MartÃn-Calero’s first work is methodical, atmospheric and visually captivating, creating an anxious tension delicately and elegantly. And perhaps the best use of text-on-screen in recent times. With Ester Expósito (from the Elite television series) and singer and actress Malena Villa (El tema del verano).
The gallery of horror cinema’s greatest demons is vast – Freddy, Jason, Leatherface,
Xenomorphs, Pazuzu, Cenobites, etc., but there’s always room for one more. El llanto presents
an evil that we all know but which is more insidious than those listed above: an old white man
who silences and takes away the place of speech from young women, until he murders them.
This metaphysical patriarchal specter haunts and makes everyone doubt their reality, sowing
fear until it becomes a shadow for the three protagonists, three young women separated by
thousands of kilometers and decades of distance. The film, Pedro MartÃn-Calero’s debut feature,
skillfully and sensitively explores gender violence and the nature of trauma, and how certain
hauntings have become universal, inescapable phenomena. An essential feminist thriller, timely
in times of machismo and misogyny, latent and otherwise. Sound familiar? Yes, indeed… (Bruno Pereira)
