Set in the Northwestern Argentinean province of Tucuman and based on a real-life story that helped to trigger the legalisation of abortion in the South American country, the sophomore feature of actress-turned-director Dolores Fonzi (after 2023’s critically-acclaimed Blondi) is a concise and competent piece of filmmaking. It illustrates with clarity how the nation’s establishment (the prison system, the justice system, the media, etc) wilfully enabled the imprisonment and the public chastising of a 24-year-old woman, whose only “crime” was visiting hospital while suffering a miscarriage.
Julieta attended the Alberdi Hospital in 2014 after experiencing excruciating abdominal pains. She claimed that she neither was pregnant nor had eaten anything unusual. A scar on the abdomen revealed that her appendix had already been removed. She suddenly ran to the toilet, before being taken into the operating theatre. The police stormed into the room and arrest her, despite the protests of the doctors concerned for her well-being. Julieta, who is performed with visceral conviction by Camila Plaate, is arrested on murder charges, with the aggravating factor that she had a relationship with the alleged victim.
Defence lawyer Soledad Deza (played with passion and strength by the director Dolores Fonzi, who boasts the eyes and the charms of Angelina Jolie) is hellbent on helping the young woman. Her determination is both professional and moral. She believes that the system failed her client. Inflexible Judge Farina and ruthless prosecutor Camino demonstrate that the institutions are rigged against the woman, who comes from a poor background. They keep her behind bars while awaiting her trial for two years (despite no evident risk of absconding), they routinely change hearing dates at their convenience and – most crucially – they refuse to provide the case files to the defence team. A dodgy registrar simply refuses to hands the documents to the legal team, coming up with one excuse after the other. The fact that prosecutor Camino is a woman is of little comfort to Julieta and Soledad: the female professional is perfectly happy to play by the rules of the testosterone-fuelled environment.
The case goes national, and pro-life vigilantes take matters into their own hands. Julieta takes the “Belen” alias for the sake of her privacy and security. Soledad does not enjoy the same benefit, having her house and indeed her family harassed and attacked multiple times. Her bigmouthed adolescent daughter operates as a sounding board, prepared to challenge the ethical and even religious foundations of her work. Her husband is thoroughly supportive, while her son is mostly indifferent to the proceedings. The small network of women supporting Soledad and Belen – mostly jurists and journalists – gradually snowballs into vast swathes of women and women’s rights champions taking to the streets of various Argentinian cities.
The irregularities of the investigation are exposed one by one thanks to the multiples efforts of the many female fighters. It eventually becomes clear that Julieta/Belen’s guilty verdict was unreliable, since crucial details were conveniently omitted. There were conflicting hospital records on the age and gender of the unborn baby, and the foetus itself had mysteriously disappeared without a DNA test every being conducted.
Belen is at its strongest, most humanistic and relatable when Plaate and Fonzi are at the forefront. The titular character is credible and moving. The opening and the closing scene are notably powerful. The court scenes are auspicious, if a little brief. The 105-minute story loses some momentum during the final third. The activist scenes lack vigour and spontaneity, while a fiery feminist speech lapses into unwarranted didacticism. The director nearly sacrifices the most humanistic elements of her movie in favour widely-known mottoes.
Argentinian cinema is no stranger to activist films, and many such movies have recently passed through the San Sebastian International Film Festival. They include Landmarks (Lucrecia Martel, 2024), Puan (María Alché and Benjamín Naishtat, 2023), and Camila Comes Out Tonight (Ines Barrionuevo, 2021).
Belen showed in the Official Competition of the 73rd San Sebastian International Film Festival, when this piece was originally written. In UK cinemas on Friday, November 7th.
