By Renée Sum Scott (University of North Florida)
Lucrecia Martel was born in the province of Salta in northwestern Argentina. It is important to mention this fact because there site its three feature films: The Swamp (2001), The Holy Girl (2005) and The Headless Woman (2008). Through female characters, who are the backbone of action movies, removed an idealized vision of society Salta, showing their conflicts and prejudices. Although his work is based on local experience is autobiographical and universal themes, which certainly has contributed to its success, Martel is the director best known of the "New Argentine Cinema."
The detailed indoor scenarios help to underline the sense of disorientation and confinement felt by the characters. In the neglected mansion in the swamp, Mecha, the matriarch of a family "well" come down and their children spend hours lying dead in bed napping. The alarm clock on the bedside table constantly Mecha 12:00 mark because no one bothers to set the time. Meanwhile at home Tali City, Mecha's cousin, is constantly trying to be heard above the noise from the bar next door. In The Holy Girl, teenager Amalia lives with his mother Helena and his uncle Eddy in the old hotel, The Spa, which belongs to the family. With its old-fashioned furniture and painting naked of its rooms, the hotel reflects the physical and moral lethargy in which the characters are talking nonsense with nothing to do with his life.
Vero in The headless woman, believed to have struck someone on the road. Throughout the film disconnected from reality shifts between various spaces. At home comes dressed in the shower, get to your office dentist and sit in the waiting room. Aunt Lala spends his days bedridden having apparitions and hearing voices from beyond. Said Josephine, the sister of Vero: "In this family end up losing it all" showing the process of decay that Martelson actors unable to stop. While in the Hollywood cinema phones are a sign of affluence, in Martel's films are associated with the failure of communication. Mecha refuses to talk on the phone with Mercedes, the former lover of her husband. Vero The Headless Woman does not use the phone in his bedroom. The maids usually make the calls showing how the players have lost touch with what happens outside their rooms and rely on indigenous women who for some contempt. In The Holy Girl the phone also promotes communication between the characters. Helena dislikes her ex husband call and when his brother Freddy finally dials the number of his former wife in Chile, when it answers hang up without speaking. 
Martel is dedicated to breaking down the image of the selfless and sacrificial mother to be the eternal respect so important to Catholicism, especially in Hispanic countries. When the alcoholic in The Swamp Mecha falls and hurts chest with pieces of glass of a drink her teenage daughter Momi (still no drivers license) must take her to hospital. His son Joaquin has lost an eye catching, another example of maternal neglect. Tali counterpart is an active and enterprising is to keep the family order, a true mother of caring and comfort. However, the dramatic conclusion of the film his six year old son died after falling from a ladder while she is distracted. The conservative mother Josephine The Holy Girl finds his daughter in bed with his cousin, which again places the viewer in a kind of questioning motherhood. For relief of tinnitus increases and decreases as the voltage, Helena in The Holy Girl is locked in his bedroom with the shades down, literally and symbolically closing its connection to the world. Excited about the attention you give Dr. Jano, who is participating in the congress of otolaryngology cheese is made in The Spa, do not have time to care for her daughter Amalia. In The Headless Woman, Veronica is more concerned with their hair dyed the welfare of their daughters. When Aunt Lala says, "Good thing you did not have children", instead of correcting it remains silent, as if she doubted her own motherhood.
Another recurring theme of the films is the religion which occupies a central place in everyday society Salta. Lady In The marsh is present at the TV screen and in the mouths of women, because his figure has appeared on top of a tank of city water. In one of the last scenes of the film, Momi says: "I went to the Virgin Mary appeared. I saw nothing. "Indeed, we are facing an empty religiosity that leads the characters to any discussion about class and race attitudes. Mecha abusing their maids, which are collectively referred to as "these Indians" are accused of lazy and thieves but depends entirely on them. When Dr. Jano Bumble Amalia in The Holy Girl, the restless teenager finds his mission in the divine plan: save us from sin. Meanwhile her friend Josefina enjoy the groping with his cousin but he warns: "I do not want premarital sex." In The Headless Woman gives Vero clothes and check the mouth of the students, as if these actions were sufficient to satisfy the obligation to help others. When she passed in his car by marginalized communities in the city again the viewer is exposed to this conservative society where the wealthy whites and poor Indians interact constantly but never mix.
