La Ciénaga2001
Paired by the Criterion Channel, both picked by Barry Jenkins and Raven Jackson in the Criterion Closet, and both on Nina Menkes’s Top 10
- Criterion Collection
- Spine №259
- Connections
- View Connections
Synopsis
Twelve-year-old Anaïs is fat. Her sister, fifteen-year-old Elena, is a beauty. While the girls are on vacation with their parents, Anaïs tags along as Elena explores the dreary seaside town. Elena meets Fernando, an Italian law student; he seduces her with promises of love, and the ever watchful Anaïs bears witness to the corruption of her sister’s innocence. FAT GIRL is not only a portrayal of female adolescent sexuality and the complicated bond between siblings but also a shocking assertion by the always controversial Catherine Breillat that violent oppression exists at the core of male-female relations.
