San Sebastian 2024: El lugar de la otra (dir. Maite Alberdi) | Review

El lugar de la otra (In Her Place) is what I would call an ingenious film based on real-life events revolving around a woman author who was sentenced to a two-year prison term for shooting her boyfriend in one of the top hotels in the 50s. This flamboyant film, which was part of the official selection of the 72nd San Sebastian International Film Festival, is also Chile’s official entry to the Oscars. Director Maite Alberdi, known for films like El salvavidas (2011), La once (2014), Los niños (2016), and El agente topo (Perlak, 2020), which premiered at Sundance in the World Cinema Documentary competition, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, won the Ariel for Best Ibero-American Film, and was nominated for the Goya in the same category.

In this film, Alberdi brings a fantastic story not just of the murder of writer Marina Carolina Geel by her lover and her punishment but also a side story of the secret life of a humble secretary, Mercedes (Elisa Zulueta), to a senior judge.

Popular writer Marina Carolina Geel (Francisca Lewin) is caught red-handed shooting her lover in a well-known fancy hotel, which becomes the talk of the town in 1955. She is remanded to a nunnery, given an inadequate sentence of less than two years in jail before being released with a presidential pardon.

Mercedes is everyone’s menial worker, both in her house and workplace. Her spouse Efraín (Pablo Macaya) is an inept photographer who has his studio occupying a good portion of their small apartment. As she heads out to work, Mercedes quietly gives him tips on lighting. Their two adult sons hardly do anything, with neither they nor their father knowing how to do the dishes, instead arguing and wrestling in cramped areas.

When the judge instructs Mercedes to retrieve fresh clothes for the famous prisoner, she unexpectedly finds herself in a peaceful and more luxurious environment at her own home. She thinks of watering the numerous potted plants. She experiments with wearing Maria’s clothing. After that, she begins to wear them at her job. She is able to enjoy a meal calmly in Maria’s spacious setting and peruse any book. There is a bed where no one is snoring next to her. There are moments of crisis too, like when a slightly drunk man with his key shows up and sees her in the velvet robe he gifted Maria for her birthday. Her disreputable bohemian guest brushes it off with laughter; he isn’t concerned about who Mercedes is. “He says this house resembles an embassy.” “A lot of people have found refuge here.”

It is a delightful film, not too heavy but giving us an insight into the 50s where a woman’s life was not that important if she did not hold a high position or was famous. Mercedes is often overlooked or demeaned by the men in control of her life, but she takes matters into her own hands, radiating with hope and humor.

The lively enthusiasm appears to have been deliberately planned to balance the feminist theme of the fable, which could have easily come across as preachy. It is enlightening the way Mercedes’ sons playfully refer to her as “the lawyer,” knowing it’s impossible; her boss dining at a club barring women; the pile of dirty dishes when she returns home; the public’s insatiable curiosity about the scandalous murderess.

This film truly makes you feel what Mercedes is going through, and though it deals with sexist remarks surrounding daily life, it does not rely strongly on highlighting them. Instead, it asks the audience to go with the flow and look at the intertwined lives of the two female protagonists. All in all, it is a very light film that makes you smile.

We are delighted to be reporting live from the 72nd San Sebastian International Film Festival, running on September 20-28, 2024 in Spain.