The Rye Horn

O Corno

San Sebastian Film Festival

VERDICT: Celebrating the natural cycles of life in women’s ever-changing bodies, Jaione Camborda’s second feature 'The Rye Horn' is a moving period drama that touches on abortion laws in 1971 Spain.

Deeply entrenched in the sensuality of the Spanish countryside in Galicia, its stone fishing villages and golden fields of rye, The Rye Horn (O Corno) weaves its drama around a midwife on the Illa de Arousa who is forced to flee the island to preserve her freedom and her life.

In her second feature after Arima (2020), San Sebastian-born director Jaione Camborda displays her talent directing a cast of non-pro actors in scenes that can be harsh and visceral, but also seeringly honest, as they deal directly with women’s bodies.

Anyone looking for edgy material, humor, irony or genre-mashing should apply elsewhere. We are in classic art film territory here, where dialogue is reduced to the essential among characters who are simple folks tied to their homes and families. Bowing in Toronto’s Platform followed by San Sebastian’s Official Selection, the film can count on the support of female viewers in particular, and perhaps on the topicality of legal changes to long-standing abortion laws that endanger women’s lives while making it increasingly difficult for them to control reproduction on their own. Although this is not a preachy film with a message, it clearly champions individual choice and women’s rights over their own bodies.

Audiences will be tested in their commitment in the extended first scene, in which an island woman goes through a very difficult labor giving birth to her fourth child. Filmed in unflinching close-up on the face of the tortured, screaming mother Carmen, the whole thing is so painful and harrowing that the stunned family slinks out of the room. There is no doctor present, only Maria (Janet Novas), who helps local women deliver their babies and whose calm voice and encouraging words are a godsend.

One of the watchers that day is Carmen’s daughter Luisa (Carla Rodriguez Rivas), a fleet-footed high schooler who aspires to compete nationally in running competitions. The time is 1971 and the island still feels very remote from mainland Spain. Camborda uses a minimum of shots and dialogue to show that Luisa has a boyfriend, but she still wants to leave the island if she’s chosen for the team. He leaves a love-bite on her neck; later, she finds out she’s pregnant.

Wide-eyed but not so innocent about what’s happening to her, she implores Maria to help her get rid of the baby. Spain is still under the control of Franco and the Roman Catholic Church, and the law severely punishes anyone who procures or performs an abortion. Maria is reluctant, even though her method is a natural remedy, a potent herbal tea made from a horn-like growth on certain rye stalks. She harvests it for Luisa.

In the second half of the film the story enters a dramatic new phase, in which Maria is forced to flee from the island and disappear into neighboring Portugal. Novas, a dancer and choreographer making her acting debut here, brings raw realism to Maria’s narrow escape by night, stumbling through woods and hitching rides with sheep farmers. At first she is frighteningly on her own, until she finds comfort and kindness from various women she meets on her way – a tavern owner and her brave daughter, and later an African prostitute (a somber Siobhan Fernandes) who offers her shelter. Again Camborda’s screenplay sidesteps a heavy message about female solidarity to concentrate on how the poor help the poor, especially against their universal oppressors: the police and border guards.

Impressively lensed by veteran Portuguese D.P. Rui Poças (Alma Viva) , this is one film in which the lush, tactile photography is not a decorative distraction but actually drives the narrative forward. The unforgiving close shots of women cleaning shellfish or working the fields with their bare hands, having babies and making love in the forest dirt, give the story a very special sort of three-dimensionality and believability. Also notable is Camilo Sanabria’s music; its initially gentle and soothing score enters a pulsating new register as it follows Maria as a fugitive on the run.

Director, screenplay: Jaione Camborda
Cast: Janet Novas, Siobhan Fernandes, Carla Rodriguez Rivas, Daniela Hernan Marchan, Mario Lado, Julia Gomez, Nuria Lestegas, Diego Anido
Producers: Jaione Camborda, Andrea Vazquez, Maria Zamora, Rodrigo Areias, Katleen Goossens
Cinematography: Rui Pocas

Editing: Christopher Fernandez
Production design: Melania Freire
Costume design: Uxia P. Vaello
Music: Camilo Sanabria
Sound: Sergio Silva
Production companies: Esnatu Zinema (Spain), Miramemira (Spain), Elastica Films (Spain), Side Aside (Portugal), Bulletproof Cupid (Belgium)
World Sales: Films Boutique (France)
Venue: San Sebastian Film Festival (Official Selection)
In Galician, Portuguese
103 minutes