The Red Virgin movie review: Impeccable performances anchor this tale of parenthood and principles

A still from ‘The Red Virgin’
| Photo Credit: @AmazonMGMStudios/YouTube

Aware of the term ‘Eugenics’? A quick Google search reveals it to be a “set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population”. Director Paula Ortiz, in her recent Prime Video outing The Red Virgin, takes the blood-stained pages from history and turns them into a biopic of one of several personalities whose works were forgotten after the Spanish Civil War.

The Red Virgin is based on the real-life story of Aurora (Najwa Nimri), the eugenicist and feminist mother of Hildegart (Alba Planas), who she conceived as a scientific experiment to represent the woman of the future. Born to be the perfect prototype, Hildegart turns out to be a prodigy; a child political activist, who, even before turning a teen, gave conferences on feminism and female sexuality. But as Hildegart hits the later part of her teenage, the authoritarian hold Aurora had over her daughter slips a little causing the duo to react which leads to a point of no return.

Set against the backdrop of the Second Spanish Republic, Paula Ortiz has an immense amount of material to work with which she does commendably. But it’s the performances of its lead Alba Planas and Money Heist-fame Najwa Nimri that turn this well-oiled machinery into a functioning heart that brings in a whole sense of warmth to what could have been a rudimentary tale. The film relies majorly on the compelling mother-and-daughter relationship and how despite their physical proximity, the commonalities they shared initially — from their affection for each other and their mutual ideologies — change as the story progresses and they slowly drift apart. It’s the brilliant job on the acting front that makes their character arcs more effective.

Despite its straightforward narration, the film delves deep into concepts of socialism, feminism and sexual liberation — which also formed the roots of Hildegart’s politics — and lets us witness a family crumbling slowly from the within. In a bid to attain perfection with her daughter, Aurora, unaware, becomes something she fought her life against, a fascist. What her daughter compares her, in the fag end of the film, might have come off as a harsher insult for her; owing to the control freak Aurora turns out to be, she gets asked what separates her from a man.

The sharp lines that are thankfully well-translated into English push home the intensity of the much-varied wants ofThe Red Virgin’s two leads. Be it lines mouthed by the young Hildegart, such as “Is prodigy somehow exclusive to the male gender?” or her mother’s insanely deft one-liners like “Love and revolution are incompatible” and “You don’t have a father, child; that’s why we are free”, dialogues can inarguably a pillar of support to the film. Aurora’s advice of keeping “Freud in your vagina, Nietzsche in your chest and Marx in your head” and how there’s a tragic callback to this later in the film makes for some of the best directorial touches of Paula Ortiz.

The gothic-esque visuals accentuate the tone and feel of the film. A part of me could not help but wonder how the mother-daughter duo, in a different universe, might have made for a perfect Morticia and Wednesday from The Addams Family. The film also moves from an intriguing drama to a heartbreaking thriller at the drop of a hat. Thankfully, the transformation feels like a series of notes rising to a crescendo rather than a jarring tonal shift.

The Red Virgin is a brilliant biopic that doubles as an intriguing mother-daughter thriller anchored by fantastic performances and an impeccable screenplay.

The Red Virgin is currently streaming on Prime Video