The year is 2000, and the place in Ponferrada, a medium-sized municipality in the Northwestern Spanish region of Leon. Twenty-five year-old graduate Nevenka Fernandez (Mireia Oriol) has no work experience and no political affiliation. That does not prevent mayor Mayor Ismael Alvarez (Urko Olazabal) from hiring her as finance councillor, the third highest-ranking position in local government. The highly manipulative man dissuades the bright young woman from moving to Madrid in order to pursue further studies, and join her sweetheart Luca. No eyebrows are raised. This is a world where men routinely take the helm of women’s jobs, ambitions and livelihoods.
The new councillor is very diligent at her job, despite the conservative mayor’s highly questionable agenda (Ismael is a member of right wing party PP). He seeks to develop a mostly redundant new district, while allowing the perfectly functional apartments in the old town to fall into disrepair. Documents are often prepared last minute, and internal procedure is disregarded with sheer casualness. Career-driven Nevenka turns a blind eye and forges ahead undaunted, despite the critical gaze of opposition leader Charo Velazco, a dignified female politician and also a doctor (belonging to the Psoe, the Spanish labour party).
Nevenka learns it the hard way that her ascension comes at a price. Ismael is “deeply in love” with Nevenka, and he’s convinced that the sentiment is reciprocated. Well, not quite. That’s just the strategy he employs in order to have sex with the young woman. Other tactics include gaslighting, intimidation, blackmailing, a touch of violence and even victimisation (maybe it’s Nevenka who’s toying with the poor ol’ chap?). At first, she rejects his advances. Then she finally gives in. Nevenka becomes Isma’s “Queki”. The pet name represents her animalistic condition. Ismael treats Nevenka like a mangey hound at work and like a sucking pig in bed. He devours every inch of her hesitant body with the voracious appetite of a lion.
Our protagonist suffers enormous bullying and scrutiny, particularly after she decides to file a complaint and go public. The predictable questions immediately surface: why didn’t she just walk out? How could Ismael harass her if they were in a consensual relationship? At times, it feels as if it was Nevenka is the one on trial. A predicament all too familiar to all trailblazing females who decide to confront the patriarchy. The old-fashioned establishment isn’t represented just by men here. In fact, the patriarchy is non-binary. Countless women come forward in support of the “wonderful” mayor. Conversely, many men are genuinely sympathetic of Nevenka, including Lucas and her doting lawyer Adolfo.
Both leads deliver auspicious performances. The two characters are easily recognisable: this is the hunter-gets-captured-by-the-game real-life harassment story you’ve heard many times in recent years (notable films include Isabel Coixet’s jarring The Yellow Ceiling and Vanessa Filho’s filthy genius Consent, from 2022 and 2023 respectively). This conventionally structured sexual abuse story culminates in a courtroom drama, with a duration of 120 minutes. It occasionally lapses into didacticism, however without losing sight of its most significant objective: to expose the deeply rooted power structures that keep powerful men unchallenged and unscathed. Nevenka has predictably become a prominent leader of the Spanish #MeToo movement. I Am Nevenka also provides a vivid portrait of Spain at the crossroads of socio-political modernisation. This was a country alien to women’s rights and secluded from the rest of the planet just two decades earlier, and now at the forefront of the equality agenda.
I am Nevenka premiered in the Official Competition of the 72nd San Sebastian International Film Festival, when this piece was originally written. The UK premiere takes place in October, as part of the 68th BFI London Film Festival.
