The Red Squirrel (La ardilla roja)

Dir: Julio Medem

1993

*****

The Red Squirrel is one of the best but ridiculously unsung thrillers of the early 90s with its biggest fan being none other than Stanly Kubrick who suggested it was one the best films of the last twenty-five years. The film begins on a striking note as we see a young and heartbroken musician called Jota (played by actor and musician Nancho Novo) standing on the edge of a bridge. He is building his confidence to jump and is about to commit suicide when a girl on a motorcycle races past him out of control and crashes through the barrier and off the side of the bridge. He rushes to her aid and takes her to hospital where he decides to call her Lisa (played by award winning actor Emma Suárez of Julieta fame) and claims her as his girlfriend, after learning that the accident has caused her to lose her memory, even forgetting her real name (which we later discover is actually Sofía). After telling the paramedics and staff at the hospital that she is his girlfriend, he later tells her the same. He invents an entire identity for her, and a history of their relationship according to his own fantasies. While the same sort of scenario is used as a sweet and innocent love story two years later in Sandra Bullock’s While You Where Sleeping, The Red Squirrel doesn’t shy away from just how creepy the whole thing is. There is a darkness to it but at the same time you feel sympathy for Jota, you almost hope it works out for him, even though its one of the worst things you could do/happen to a person. It doesn’t take long for the hospital psychiatrist to become suspicious, so Jota takes her out of the hospital and away on a trip to the 'Ardilla Roja' campsite, which he claims they have been planning for some while. As their relationship becomes intimate, their behaviour sparks the suspicions of a family of fellow campers (played by Karra Elejalde and María Barranco) and it becomes clear that Lisa/Sofía's memory is not entirely missing. We soon find out that she is hiding her own past secrets, most notably, the existence of a psychotic ex-boyfriend, Félix (Carmelo Gómez), who is rampaging across the country in search of her. Julio Médem remains one of the worlds most striking directors with every one of his films hitting a unique high note. His films are bold and uncompromising and shatter the usual preconceptions we might have of the limitations of cinema as well as presenting an incredibly intelligent and original approach to the ideas of production design, editing and cinematography. The Cinematography by Gonzalo F. Berridi is also second to none and perfect for this kind of unique thriller. Stanley Kubrick was such a fan of the film, he purchased Julio Medem's own personal print from him but then Kubrick’s influence is all over this film. Credit to Medem’s own creative talent and vision but there is a little bit of Tarkovsky, Bergman, Hitchcock and Kubrick in La ardilla roja. It’s astounding how perfect the film is considering this was only his second film, following his 1991 satire Vacas – which featured many of the same actors. It marked the beginning of a body of work that would explore a multi-layered world where interpretations and elements of broad, Buñuelian surrealism are at odds with a more recognisable presentation of reality with somewhat contradictory characters who seem to demand both sympathy and scorn. I wonder whether you’d end up with Medem if you crossed Hitchcock with Buñuel, or Salvador Dali and Kubrick but either way, his work is glorious and unique. As the story progresses and we are drawn ever deeper into the film's central mystery, we begin to note the emergence of further plot influences, such as psychological horror, melodramatic eroticism, heart-stopping suspense, black comedy and eventually full-blown surrealism, it shouldn’t really work but it does – what we think we know about narrative and structure in film is clearly a lie – and the discovery is glorious. I wonder whether Kubrick liked it so much because Médem managed to explore his concept in just one simple film, where Kubrick took a life’s work to do it, with many, many takes. Kubrick had a weird way of complementing Médem though, as when Kubrick was asked if he’d like to be involved with the new Zorro re-boot (the producers knew he was a fan of the original) he suggested Médem would be perfect for the job, even though it was clear that such a film really was beneath his talents.