The joint efforts of Spanish and Romanian filmmakers have produced Goat Girl or La niña de la cabra (Outsider Pictures). It’s a coming-of-age or crisis-of-faith story, with solid performances and interesting direction.
The story takes place in Madrid in 1988, where an 8-year-old girl named Elena lives with her parents and grandmother in a small apartment. The film does a great job of showing, not telling, the dynamics of Elena’s family, while also keeping the focus centered on Elena’s perspective.
One of the most important aspects of the plot is Elena’s relationship with her grandmother. It’s quickly apparent that Elena loves the attention and love that she receives from Grandma, as it's seemingly the only source of parental love in her life.
One thing that struck me was how natural all of the performances seem. Subtle facial expressions and inflections in an actor’s voice made them all seem like genuine people. None of the performances will blow you away, but they’re not soap-opera-level cheesy either. They are subdued in a way that reflects how real people behave, and the performance from Elena’s grandmother delivers the warm kindness of a grandparent.
Unfortunately, Elena’s grandma suddenly dies in her sleep one night, which fills Elena with religious paranoia after the initial sadness wears off. Elena’s family is deeply Catholic, and her grandmother was getting flak for not attending mass, even though she was ill. In Elena’s mind, that put her grandmother’s soul in jeopardy of going to Hell.
The only thing that alleviates her melancholy is seeing a group of Romani, or Gypsies, as Elena’s parents call them, performing in the plaza outside her apartment building. Among them is a girl around her age who dances next to a black goat. The interesting twist here is that Elena is told that a goat can be a proxy for the Devil, as it represents wickedness.
Elena’s friendship with the girl, Serezade, is interesting because aside from the obvious connection of being the same age with similar interests, there’s also a subconscious connection. The inner turmoil in Elena’s heart has put her faith in God on one side with her parents and a strict priest, while her beloved grandmother and new friend have a connection with the demonic visage of a goat.
There’s nothing supernatural going on; it’s just the imagination of a young girl. But the drama that comes from Elena navigating her conflicting feelings is engrossing. Alessandra Gonzales puts in a surprisingly good performance as she avoids a lot of the common pitfalls into which child actors often fall.
The biggest problem with the film is that there’s never a big moment that elevates the stakes of the plot. The film is presented as a type of autobiographical story from the writer and director Ana Asensio, so it’s possible that she didn’t want to overexaggerate the events.
Still, it makes the movie seem like it’s missing something that would make the second half more interesting. It doesn’t ruin the movie by any means, but it makes the last half hour lack impact. Things are resolved a little too neatly.
It's clear that Goat Girl is a typical indie film because it relies on good, solid actors and a grounded story, even at the cost of an exciting plot. While I can see some viewers concluding that the film can be, perhaps, dull at times, it’s still highly enjoyable and interesting enough for me to recommend.
Author Bio:
Ulises Duenas is a senior writer and film critic at Highbrow Magazine.
For Highbrow Magazine