Winner of Best Director and Best Actress at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, director Anahi Berneri’s latest masterpiece is a crackling, punchy study of a few days in the life of a young mother working as a prostitute in Buenos Aires.

Alanis – who’s real name is Maria – is a proud young woman doing her best for her 18-month-old son, Dante. Living with her friend and fellow prostitute Gisela, together they rent an off the books apartment where they work and reside. When the authorities intrude on this stable, if hardly idyllic set up, and arrest Gisela for procurement (which unlike prostitution itself is a crime in Argentina), Dante and Alanis are shut out of their home and find themselves struggling to live under the same laws that are supposed to protect them.

Sofia Gala Castiglione is fantastic as Alanis, delivering a beautifully naturalistic performance enhanced by her real infant son playing Dante. She is cast neither as a victim nor a weak woman, and the deliberate lack of judgement of her profession is refreshing; this is a careful, artful portrait reflecting on the female archetypes of virgin, mother and whore.

Part of ¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Festival 2019 tour, presented by HOME, Manchester, with the support of the BFI, awarding funds from The National Lottery.

---