52 Films by Women Vol 6. 33. LA CIVIL (Director: Teodora Ana Mihai)
At the beginning of any film, you ask yourself, who is the protagonist? When there is a star involved, it can be obvious. In an independently produced film such as La Civil , co-written (with Habacuc Antonio De Rosario) and directed by the Romanian-born, Belgium-based Teodora Ana Mihai, you can’t immediately tell. A teenage girl, Laura (Denisse Azpilicueta) is applying make-up and scrolling through her phone, almost simultaneously – you know what teenagers are like. We hear the sound of messages popping up, one after the other. Her mother, Cielo (Arcelia Ramirez) is in the background. ‘Here’s a good one,’ Laura says, reading a social media post. ‘Eve meets Adam. She says, ‘we have no clothes, no job, no shelter. How can we be in paradise? We must be in Mexico.’’ Cielo, who is busy making a cake, does not react. Laura takes time to apply lipstick to her mother’s face before leaving to meet her boyfriend, Lisandro (Manuel Villegas). Laura briefly mentions her father, who...