Carmen & Lola

The Spanish film Carmen y Lola was shown in the U.S. with the translated title Carmen & Lola (2018). The movie was written and directed by Arantxa Echevarría.

The film stars Zaira Romero as Lola, a young Roma woman. (We use the word "Roma," but apparently in Spain they still use Gitana or Gypsy. The Roma in Spain use a word for non-Roma that the subtitles call "Whiteys.") Rosy Rodríguez portrays Carmen, another young Roma woman.

Carmen is settled within the Roma community, willing to play out the traditional lifestyle of daughter, wife, mother. Lola doesn't want to break from the community, but she wants to be a teacher, which is unsettling to her parents.

Lola knows that she's a lesbian. Carmen doesn't know that she even might have lesbian tendencies until she meets Lola. The plots starts at that point.

Both Romero and Rodriguez are excellent actors, and they are both confident and comfortable in the roles they play. It's a pleasure to watch them act. The supporting cast is excellent as well.

We saw this film at The Little Theatre, as part of Rochester's wonderful ImageOut LGBT Festival. Carmen & Lola has a pretty good rating of 7.1. I think it's better than that, and I recommend it.

An interesting and relevant tale of love between two young women : 17-year-old Carmen (Rosy Rodríguez) lives in a gypsy community in the suburbs of Madrid , Vallecas , and works with her family in a street market . Like every other woman she has ever met, she is destined to live a life that is repeated generation after generation : getting married and raising as many children as possible . She gets engaged to Rafa (Juan José Jiménez) . But one day she meets 16-year-old Lola (Zaira Romero) , an uncommon gypsy girl who dreams about going to university , draws bird graffiti and likes girls . She also helps her family in the street market . Then , little by little , both of whom fall in love . Along the way they are overcoming obstacles that may be stronger than their peculiar romance . The love story of two gypsy girls ¡

An agreeable movie that shows life of the peculiar Romanian race by exposing cultures and communities with the necessary example of the Gypsy community in Spain dealing with the intense love story of two roma women , as they quickly develop a complicity with each other and discover a new world that , inevitably , leads them to be rejected and isolated by their respective families . It includes traditions , repression caused by ancient beliefs , religious fanatism , old habits , dancing of this gypsy ethnic and giving a charming sight-point , though at times falling in the well-worn , cliched and trite , providing an engaging vision of this race . Lovely , attractive and very languid in its style , and regarding thought-provoking and thorny issues , such as : sexism , machism , conservatism and racism . It is good reflection on gypsy life along with the beauty of the people themselves, it captures the Romanian life with a very precise and unique cinematography style . Stars Zaira Romero and Rosy Rodriguez who are pretty good , giving adequate interpretations in in spite of being newcomers and their short age.

This engaging and brilliant account was well directed by Arantxa Echevarría at her film debut , though accasionally over-dramatized in terms of filmmaking and performances . She previously made shorts as Don Enrique de Guzmán, De noche y de pronto , Yo Presidenta , El ultimo bus , Panchito , 7 from Etheria and a documentary : Cuestión de Pelotas. Being her second film La familia perfecta 2021 and following TV series as Días mejores (2 episodes) and El Cid . Rating : 6.5/10 . It got several Awards , Goya Awards , and other prizes as well as nominations in various national and international festivals . And even it received the ministerial applause , being especially recommended to promote gender equality . Decent and acceptable film.

Exposing conservatism in cultures and communities with the example of the Gypsy community in Spain, repression due to religious fanatism and addressing social problems with hints of sexism and racism. Occasionally over-dramatized in terms of directing and acting, and somewhat stale in terms of screenwriting. Nevertheless, the film gives a very relevant and necessary perspective on regressive communities.

Zaira Romero is Lola. When her cousin gets engaged, it starts conversations about what gypsy women do when they get married and start families. But Lola doesn't want to be a housewife. She doesn't want kids. She wants to be her own person and go to school for a degree and have her own career. The girl she likes happens to be her cousin's fiancee, Carmen (Rosy Rodríguez ). They spend time alone together, but Carmen has doubts. Will she have the courage to call off the wedding and spend more time with Lola? This was released in 2018, but of course this was still a huge deal in her culture. A great performance by Lola's mom... you can really feel the pain as her parents yell and make a scene in the town square when they find out. Of course, most of the LGBTQ community went through this rejection, to some degree; some parents handle it with more kindness than others. It's good, if a little dated. Spain was the third country to legalize same sex marriage, back in 2005. Written and directed by Arantxa Echevarría. Showing on hbomax streaming channel... it won numerous awards at the film festivals.

It was a waste of story for me and some parts could have been worked out better like the parents part. Also it was a hell to watch the actors having no what so ever chemistry in this movie and I can sincerely say that I probally would have liked it better without any of the romance.

I have no clue why critics rate this movie so high, maybe they are so stuck to be confronted with a "reality" that they are so out of, who knows? For me this was a really bad representing what such a story should be in a romantic way.