As Neves is a mountain village where everyone knows each other. The night of the Carnival, the teenagers of the village throw a party where they get high on mushrooms for the first time. The next day, they wake up to the village completely snowed in by a snowstorm and the news that Paula, one of the girls who went to the party the previous night, has disappeared. The village is getting cut off, the Internet is no longer working and it is urgent to find her. The investigation following Paula’s case will cause a deep change in the villagers’ lives and their relationship with the world.
As Neves is a 2024 Spanish teen thriller film written and directed by Sonia Méndez. It is shot in Galician region of Spain. The film was presented at the 27th Málaga Film Festival on 6 March 2024. Distributed by Sideral,[6] it was released theatrically in Spain on May 10, 2024.
Film Review for As Neves
What would happen if we remained without the internet? For those of us who grew up in the analogue era, it would essentially mean a rest for our pupils and our neurons, but for all those who are digital “cripples” (since one of their hands, always occupied with the cell phone, is unusable for all other activities much of the time) such a possibility resembles the most terrible and unimaginable catastrophe. This is one of the themes addressed in As Neves , a film by Sonia Méndez, with which the director makes her fiction debut after making the documentary A poet illiterate and with which she competed for the Biznaga in the official section of the 27th Malaga Film Festival.
As Neves is also the name of the Galician village where the action of this feature film takes place, which begins with a party where drugs are rampant, but also a video shot without consent which should not trigger any conflict, as it belongs to the intimacy of the people who appear in it… but it won’t be like that, on the contrary, it will arouse a certain clamor around it. The next day it is discovered that one of the girls who appear in these stolen images has not returned home and an investigation is launched to discover her whereabouts, while an ice storm hits the city, cutting her off – physically and virtually – from rest of the world.
It is then that these kids lose their usual sources of fantasy, distraction and escape through screens, having to face a particularly harsh and complicated reality, since no one remembers with certainty what happened on the night of the big hangover. Méndez, who is also the film’s screenwriter and co-producer, accompanies her actors closely, sharing their joys, camaraderie, fears, uncertainties, jealousy, rebellion and a high degree of confusion.
Adolescence is not the paradise of lights, colors and perfect bodies that Instagram sells, but a pressure cooker full of doubts. Thus, As Neves is another portrait of a youth far from adults, who have no idea what their children feel, desire or simply experience.
This lack of communication (intergenerational, but also between these hyper-connected kids) becomes – together with the sense of guilt that spreads like a pandemic among them – the axis of a youth drama disguised as a rural thriller, played by newcomers who add authenticity to the fiction , but which in some scenes betray their poor expressive ability in front of the camera. Overall, the film manages to maintain the suspense of its detective plot and depict the use – and abuse – of technology.
As Neves (2024)
Directed by: Sonia Méndez
Starring: Andrea Varela, David Rodríguez Fernández, Antía Mariño, Xacobe Bruña, Irene Rodríguez, Diego Caro, Santi Carmena Rico, Jenny Soto Romarís, Adriana Fernández Pazó, Lucía Veiga
Screenplay by: Sonia Méndez
Production Design by: Pedro Hernández Santos
Cinematography by: Lucía C. Pan
Film Editing by: Juliana Montañés
Art Direction by: Miguel Prieto
Music by: Andy Bell
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Sideral
Release Date: March 6, 2024 (Málaga), May 10, 2024 (Spain)
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