Sun 12th April 2:30pm

Drama. Jaime de Armiñán, 80 min, Spain, 1971

Miss Adela Castro, a mature lady from the provincial Spanish bourgeoisie, has spent her life in solitude, sewing, playing the piano, attending charity meetings at the local church and meditating on her forced spinsterhood. Her partially unacknowledged attraction to females drives Adela to her confessor and then to a doctor. The diagnosis is unambiguous: she is a man. Adela, now Juan, is then forced to confront both a prejudiced society and himself. Jaime Armiñán directed My Dearest Señorita in a context of profound social transition in Spain. Miraculously evading censorship, the film constructed a delicious and grotesque parody of the falsities and deformations brought about by Francoist education. A prodigiously balanced film selected to represent Spain at the Academy Awards in 1972.

Cast: José Luis López Vázquez, Julieta Serrano, Antonio Ferrandis, Enrique Ávila, Lola Gaos, Chus Lampreave

AWARDS

• Nominated Oscar. Best Foreign language Film.  1973
• Cinema Writers Circle Awards. CEC award. Best actor, best director, best screenplay. 1972
• National Syndicate of Spectacle, Spain. Screenplay. 1971    
  

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