‘Salve Maria’, the latest film by graduate Mar Coll, triumphs at SEMINCI

After its world premiere at Locarno and the two awards it won there, ‘Salve Maria’, directed by graduate Mar Coll, premiered in Spain at the latest edition of the Valladolid International Film Festival (SEMINCI), earning unanimous acclaim from critics and audiences.

This is Coll’s latest project. The Catalan filmmaker and ESCAC alumna had already demonstrated her talent in feature films such as ‘Tres días con la familia’ and ‘Todos queremos lo mejor para ella’.

Best Actress Award

Laura Weissmahr, the film’s lead actress, has won the Best Actress Award at SEMINCI for her outstanding portrayal of María, a protagonist with whom viewers do not always feel comfortable.

Following its success at SEMINCI, ‘Salve Maria’ has become one of the season’s most eagerly anticipated national productions, and its cinema release promises to attract both critics and audiences eager for new perspectives on Spanish cinema.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBXmIgms6f0

Salve Maria

The director’s starting point is the novel ‘Las madres no’ by Katixa Agirre, about a journalist obsessed with a former acquaintance who has drowned her infant twins in the bathtub. The book establishes a clear distance between the protagonist and the case of the woman who committed infanticide, which she follows closely because it offers a dark reflection of the maternal ideal. By contrast, in the adaptation by Coll and her longtime co-writer, Valentina Viso, they have transformed the original story, taking the protagonist’s experience to a deeper, more personal level and allowing her to see herself reflected in the darkest aspects of motherhood.