LA VOZ DORMIDA FILM REVIEW

La Voz Dormida is a 2011 Spanish melodramatic historical film directed by

Benito Zambrano. It stars María León as Pepita and Inma Cuesta as Hortensia (Pepita´s
older sister). The film is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Dulce
Chacon. It won three Goya awards for Best New Actress (María León), Best Supporting
Actress (Ana Wagener) and Best Original Song (Carmen Agredano).
The film is set in Madrid in 1940 at the time of Franco, during the aftermath of
the Spanish Civil War. It was filmed on location in the old jail Huelva.
La Voz Dormida is about an Andalusian emigrant called Pepita who leaves her
home in Cordoba in order to be near her pregnant older sister Hortensia who has been
imprisioned in Women´s Prison in Ventas (Madrid) and faces execution by being
envolved in the Resistance Movement and his leader Felipe, the father of her future
baby. But her execution won´t be carried out until the birth of her child. Meanwhile,
Pepita are doing everything possible to save her sister from the death penalty and to
ensure that the baby will be handed over to her instead of taking the baby to an
orphanage.
Hortensia ask Pepita to deliver forged identity papers to Felipe, her husband,
who is hidden in the mountains with other republicans. There, she meets the young
rebel and Felipe´s fellow Paulino Known as “Black Jacket” with whom begin a
relationship in secret and they end up falling in love.
But then comes the day on which Hortensia gives birth and now there is nothing
to save her from execution. At night the women, among them is Hortensia, are taken
from cells to the wall. A while before Hortensia can say good bye to her baby but
refuses to be baptized. Finally, Hortensia is shot in the wall being faithful to her ideas.
Next Morning, the nuns give the baby and her things to Pepita. From now on she will
raise her niece and a few years later she reunites with Paulino whom he married and
start a family.
I highly recommend this film. It´s a very moving and emotional movie that will
make you cry and reflect on what happened in the past.

Mariola Rodríguez Fernández