In the Company of Women movie storyline. Summer of 1977. Bea is 16 years old and joins the winds of change that are sweeping the country; collaborates with a group of women to make the feminist cause visible and achieve the approval of the right to abortion.
The rebellion that he feels in his blood will be mixed with an unexpected feeling that will upset his inner world. Throughout these months, Bea will establish a very special friendship with Miren, a girl slightly older than her and from a good family. His political commitment and his relationship with Miren will turn that summer into a stage that will mark a before and after in his life.
In the Company of Women (Spanish: Las Buenas Compañías) is a 2023 Spanish-French drama film directed by Sílvia Munt which stars Alicia Falcó, Itziar Ituño, and Elena Tarrats. Inspired by the case of the Basauri 11, the plot, set in the Basque town of Errenteria against the backdrop of the so-called Spanish Transition, explores the plight of women clandestinely helping other women to terminate their pregnancy.
The screenplay was penned Munt alongside Jorge Gil Munarriz. The film is a Spanish-French co-production by Irusoin, Oberon Media, En la Frontera Película, Manny Films, La Fidèle Production, with the participation of EiTB, TV3, and RTVE, and support of ICAA, ICEC, and the Basque Government. Shooting locations included Errenteria, Pasaia, San Sebastián, and Biarritz. The film was presented in the official selection of the 26th Málaga Film Festival on 13 March 2023. Distributed by Filmax, it was released theatrically in Spain on 5 May 2023.
Film Review for In the Company of Women
Why is it so difficult for you to get women their rights? Why have they been relegated since ancient times to the role of submissive, obedient, silenced in all areas? There would be a lot to write about it and this is not the time or place.
It would have to be at the end of the First World War when in England, for example, women obtained the right to vote, as long as they were over 30 years of age. Or in Spain in the general elections of 1933, during the Second Republic and before the Civil War. After Francisco Franco’s victory, neither women nor men could vote until the 1977 national elections, two years after his death.
Another controversial issue is that of the voluntary termination of pregnancy. A taboo subject according to which societies. Good company is a recognition of the right that women who consider it appropriate should have. Silvia Munt, like other film directors such as the American Phyllis Nagy have done, dares to show this lurid subject. In her film, “We Are All Jane”, played by the great Sigourney Weaver (A Monster Comes to See Me), she talks about a collective that helped put it into practice in hiding, in the city of Chicago from 1969 to 1973.
In Las buenas compañías, the necessary change is presented in the unfair situation of women, subjected to the humiliating macho customs in that disastrous Spain. By the way, it was real women who shared their experiences with the actresses and various events that actually happened. A valuable first-hand source to be more reliable this endearing, although dramatic story. With a lot of desire to live and things very clear
His radical way of seeing things, his sense of humor, the desire to explode without thinking about the consequences are some characteristics that have been wonderfully outlined. Difficult and very complex political moments that veiled the protests and interventions of those women. They were invisible, because they didn’t really mean any danger or complication at that moment.
For Silvia Munt it has meant recounting very similar personal experiences. Reveal yourself against everything that they want to impose on you. With ambiguous aspects, such as those that give rise to relationships between mothers and daughters, erotic relationships, family relationships.
The setting, the locations, are something very careful in Good Companies. For example, the gray colors of the Basque sky and the characteristic green of the interior walls of the houses of the 70s. The uncomfortable closeness of the neighbors in the patios of the houses. The crucifix hanging on the bedroom wall above the bed and attendance at daily mass are another peculiar feature of that stale and oppressive age.
Placing all the information and testimonials in Good Companies in a balanced way is something evident and very well carried out by Silvia Munt. Offering the right information so that the viewer can discover the thread of the plot on their own is synonymous with excellent direction. Just as it is also finding the right actors to represent each character. The casting was exhaustive.
For the protagonist, Bea, Alicia Falcó, it will be an essential and definitive summer to find herself and the society that surrounds her. On the one hand, she will become aware of the social part under the painful gaze of that reality of women. On the other, he will fall in love, despite himself, with a person knowing that it will cause him more suffering than well-being. He will also open his eyes and discover his mother, not as a victim, but as a woman.
The protagonist must be very special. She must have been someone very young, to reflect the tenderness, innocence, anger and androgynous trait that characterize her. Silvia discovered Alicia Falcó on the street. When he saw her, he knew it was her. Bea.
Shot as much as possible with a sequence shot, allowing the characters to develop within their situation, it makes work difficult in every way, but the result could not be better. Confessions such as “the mothers of my family have not loved their daughters” or “the children are borrowed” perhaps denote a dryness, a sad detachment from Basque mothers, from mothers in general. In a way, an acquired, misogynistic and intransigent education from the Franco era. Afraid of showing weakness if affection was shown.
Characters with contradictions and a dark part, as any human being can have, appear in Good Companies. Surviving the lack of love and needing a hug has been taken into account by Silvia Munt. The male characters are also very well outlined.
However, there is a deeper feeling that predominates over others and that is the support that women offer each other, seeing the transparency of their fragility. And not forget that what they achieved is something that must be continued. Fight for women’s rights.
The lesbian relationship between the protagonists is very subtle, very fine and intelligent, more like platonic, nothing obvious or romantic. A relationship that has not been approached as a love story, but as something inevitable.
Good Companies is a stupendous film in which many things are discussed without saying them, in which complicit significant glances are exchanged. For Silvia Munt it has meant recounting very similar personal experiences. Reveal yourself against everything that they want to impose on you.
Set in real events, in the setting of the Basque Country at the end of the 70s, where new airs of freedom were breathed. A group of women from Rentería (Guipúzcoa) fought to change the dark reality in which they lived. They helped women to cross over to France to terminate their pregnancies with dignity, if they did not want to die in lamentable unhygienic and terrible conditions.
In the Company of Women (2023)
Las Buenas Compañías
Directed by: Sílvia Munt
Starring: Alícia Falcó, Elena Tarrats, Itziar Ituño, Ainhoa Santamaría, María Cerezuela, Nagore Cenizo, Iván Massagué, Heren de Lucas, Sara Barroeta
Screenplay by: Jorge Gil Munarriz, Sílvia Munt
Production Design by: Llorenç Miquel
Cinematography by: Gorka Gómez
Costume Design by: Saioa Lara
Art Direction by: Erik Rodríguez Fernández, María Ruibal, Mayella Sainz
Music by: Paula Olaz
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Filmax
Release Date: March 13, 2023 (Málaga), May 5, 2023 (Spain)
