Raw

The debut short film of Rafael Martinez Calle, a native of Cordoba, Raw is an understated but charged depiction of an adolescent in a small town undergoing a sexual awakening. Although this evocative short is fairly restrained in terms of dialogue, in its visual-led drama it teases out both the danger and exhilaration that its protagonist, Jose (Fran Exposito) feels when he is first attracted to, and physically intimate with, a man – the handsome stranger (Fabien Charreyre-Calvez). Having won awards at festivals in Spain, the film now screens in Oldenburg before going on to appear at festivals across Europe and the Americas, not least those with an LGBTQI+ focus.

It is interesting to consider what, precisely, the title of the film is referring to. In the view of a society less accepting of queerness in its various forms, it is potentially Jose’s desires that might be condemned and considered vulgar. From the opposite perspective, it is perhaps the judgemental eyes of society themselves, concentrated in the form here of Jose’s father, Manuel (Nicolas Montoya) that may be what is crude. The tension between Jose and Manuel repeats throughout the film, the latter clearly suspects something of his son or at least deems him not to be quite right. This is evident through glances, and the nervous energy Montoya exudes, as well as a more explicit confrontation when Jose has been out late and does not explain where he was.

Of course, the multiple meanings of the word raw in English might refer to the carcasses that Jose must help prepare in his father’s butcher’s shop, or more likely, to Jose’s inexperience. When he first meets the outsider Matias – referred to as “the other” by his employer – there is an immediate attraction on the younger man’s part, but he is uncertain and perhaps even a little scared by it. On his night-time sojourn, he observes another man getting into Matias’ van out in the countryside, which eventually provides his own opportunity once emboldened by his father’s coarseness. In the film’s final shot, cool dawn breaks over the town, immaculately lighting Jose as he walks home; it’s suffused with a resplendent beauty that suggests anything but rawness for this boy made a man by his own agency.

Director, screenplay: Rafael Martinez Calle
Cast: Fran Exposito, Nicolas Montoya, Fabien Charreyre-Calvez
Producers: Nacho Perez de Guzman Amores, Eduardo B. Muñoz
Cinematography: Carolina Maltese
Editing: David Pampano Godino
Art direction: Alejandro Moreno
Sound: Tomas Florez
Production company: El Trampoline (Spain)
Venue: Oldenburg Film Festival
In Spanish
19 minutes