The Sleeping Voice (2011)
La voz dormida
Directed by: Benito Zambrano
1940, Madrid. In an overcrowded wing in a women’s prison, a nun flanked by prison warders calls out the names of several women who, with varying degrees of terror, gather their belongings and follow the nun to waiting trucks, and then on to the firing squad.
A year after the end of Spain’s civil war, prisons are full of men and women who actively or passively supported the losing, Republican side. One of these is is Hortensia (Tensi) Rodriguez (Inma Cuesta) who is seven months pregnant by her husband Felipe (Daniel Holguín), still fighting with the resistance in the hills above the city. Tensi’s sister Pepita (María León) moves arrives in Madrid to be close to her sister, finding work as a maid with a well-connected couple who hold conflicting sympathies.
Pressed into service passing messages and materials to and from the resistance, the simple, largely illiterate Pepita’s initial reluctance weakens (and commitment to the left increases) as she falls for Felipe’s handsome brother-in-arms, Paulino (Marc Clotet). When, after a farcical trial, Tensi is sentenced to death (suspended until the birth of her child), Pepita becomes desperate to save her uncompromising sister, bringing herself to the attention of the military authorities.
There is so much to admire in this adaptation of the book by Dulce Chacón, and its passion is at times overwhelming. Unapologetically partisan, it portrays its republican heroes as brave, fiery, generally youthful and good-looking (if they have a fault, it tends to be in their uncompromising, reckless zeal) while the the fascists are generally, old, cruel and ill-favoured.
Which, broadly-speaking, is fine. It may reduce its usefulness as a historical text, but as a complaint against the cruelty of dictators of all flavours, it works. In many ways, this is an old-fashioned drama, but with a much more modern willingness to portray horror.
The film looks, generally, beautiful (it has a slight tendency towards sepia) and the recreation of the Madrid of seventy years ago was, to my inexpert eye, convincing. Tensi’s radiant looks may survive the depradations of prison life a little improbably, but that is in keeping with the movie’s vintage feel.
Zambrano keeps the story moving along well in between the emotional opening and closing scenes. The technique reminded me a little of Saving Private Ryan where, after a brutal opening, we are given two hours to get to know some characters so that, when they too are slaughtered, we feel their loss so much more keenly.
