Technical data
- Title: MARARIA
- Year: 1998
- Production: Reyes Abades / Cinetel / Filmigranas / Madrid Film S.A. / PanavisionUK / Sincronía.
- Country: Spain.
- Direction: Antonio Betancor.
- Cast: Goya Toledo, Carmelo Gómez, Ian Glen y Mirta Ibarra.
Description and synopsis
This is probably the most Lanzaroteño film ever made. The main reason for this is that it is based on the novel of the same name published in 1973 by Rafael Arozarena (Tenerife, 1923-2009). The book was not only a huge critical and public success from the outset but has also come to symbolise many of the most charismatic aspects of the island’s landscape and history. The author himself, who lived for some years in Lanzarote in the mid-20th century, has acknowledged that he wanted to personify the island in the tragic story of the protagonist: Mararía.
The stories of the film and the novel focus on a peasant girl who possesses a magnetic beauty, but whose fate is marked by misfortune and doom. However, in order to give it a more filmic and universal dimension, the film version of Mararía introduced notable differences with respect to Arozarena’s novel, replacing the poetic character and fragmented structure of the literary work with a love story that had a linear development.
The plots of both the novel and the film are closely intertwined with the volcanic and agricultural landscape of Lanzarote, although in this case the territory of the island is not the setting of a comedy or a science fiction film but refers to the island’s history and its cultural idiosyncrasies.
The team involved in making the film also featured a strong islander presence, with Canary Islanders Antonio Betancor and Andrés Santana directing and producing. The Tenerife musician Pedro Guerra also participated, but the icing on the cake was Goya Toledo, Lanzarote’s most internationally renowned actress, who was nominated for the Goya Award for best new actress for this film. After Mararía, Goya Toledo filmed Amores Perros, the acclaimed debut of the multi-award-winning Mexican director Alejandro González Iñarritu.
In many ways, the landscapes of Lanzarote played the starring role in the film. Juan Antonio Ruiz Anchía’s splendid photography won him the Goya award and succeeded in presenting the island with a disturbing beauty, capable of conditioning the lives of its inhabitants and those who visit it.
