First-time director Martín Shanly crafts moments of genuine emotion in Juana a los 12
POINTS: 8
“I was interested in a fair portrayal, I didn’t want to be enraged with the place and I didn’t want the film to advocate for anything at all, I just wanted to show a space that exists,” said Argentine filmmaker Martín Shanly about his notable debut film Juana a los 12 (Juana at 12) in an interview with film critic Ezequiel Boetti in Página 12 daily. “Perhaps it’s true that the educational system tries to label the kids into being this or that and if later on they don’t meet a series of requirements, they become a problem to be solved. But I don’t think my film probes too deep into that. Instead, it’s the story of a girl dealing with adults.”
Shanly couldn’t be more right. Basically, that’s what Juana a los 12 is all about: a girl aged 12 at odds in a world of adults. More specifically, Juana attends a private and traditional English school in a well-off neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. She seems uninterested in both her classes and her leisure activities, as though she were somewhat withdrawn, an island onto herself. Her grades are low and keep getting lower. She said she’d like to be in a school play, yet she hasn’t learned her lines.
So it’s no surprise that her teachers are worried about her and so they tell her mom that maybe the girl is having some kind of problem, be it psychological or emotional. They say that maybe she should have a medical check-up. Something must be wrong. To which her mom doesn’t know what to say; in fact, she seems pretty absentminded as well. Like her daughter, she too sometimes comes across as aloof and disconnected.
Juana a los 12 is an acute, sensitive portrayal of all of Juana’s everyday activities, including of course the relationship with her friends, to whom she sometimes is an outsider whereas other times she seems welcomed. The fact is that Juana can be communicative enough when she wants to: for instance, when she wants to get invited to a party a schoolmate is organizing.
The filmmaker also smartly addresses Juana’s relationship with her teachers, who can sometimes be mean and rude, but not necessarily out of anger. Perhaps it’s frustration that they feel and even adults often don’t know what to do with frustration. It’s equally true that other teachers are quite friendly and nurture her as best as possible. And then there’s Juana’s home life, without a father and with a somewhat unaffectionate mother.
One striking characteristic about Shanly’s debut feature is how realistic it feels, how natural all performances, bonds and ties, and the drama itself come across. This sort of realism devoid of clichés and commonplace is very hard to achieve, but the filmmaker makes it look like child’s play. Another remarkable facet has to with the fact that you never get to really know what goes on inside Juana’s head — let alone get a medical diagnosis. Because the viewers are, first and foremost, nearby observers. However, at the same time, you get an inkling about her feelings, moods and thoughts. It so happens that when the camera gets closer to Juana, when some silences come to the foreground, when some occasional conversations do strike a particular chord, then this is when you stop being an observer and become someone sharing time with and around Juana. This feeling of immediacy is startling, almost uncanny, as if the acting had disappeared.
And that’s not necessarily because Juana is played by Rosario Shanly, the filmmaker’s sister and a non-professional actress, or because Juana’s mother, María Passo, is in fact played by the filmmaker’s mother. A less talented director would have made a total mess of it all. Shanly, instead, is accomplished enough to craft moments of genuine emotional resonance such as the ones found in the works of John Cassavetes. Moreover, there’s an inventive dream sequence that introduces a different aesthetic into the film and shows how resourceful and daring a novel director can be when dealing with material he feels so comfortable and assured with.
Production notes:
Juana a los 12 (Argentina, Austria, 2014). Written and directed by Martín Shanly. With Rosario Shanly, María Passo, Maria Inés Sancerni, Camila Bontá, Javier Burin Heras. Cinematography: Roman Kasseroller. Editing: Ana Godoy, Javier Favot. Running time: 75 minutes.
@pablsuarez
