07/02/2024 - The film recreates the real-life story of a pioneering woman who for the first time managed to take an influential and popular politician to court for sexual and workplace harassment

Director Icíar Bollaín, actor Urko Olazabal and actress Mireia Oriol on the set of I'm Nevenka (© David Herranz)

Filming began a few days ago in Bilbao on I’m Nevenka (Soy Nevenka). A Movistar Plus+ original film, it is the twelfth feature film directed by actress Icíar Bollaín and marks the filmmaker's first collaboration with the platform. Filming will last eight weeks until the end of March, in different locations in Bizkaia and Zamora. The director of recent titles such as Maixabel [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Icíar Bollaín
film profile] (the most watched Spanish drama in cinemas in 2021, winner of three Goya awards competing in San Sebastian) and Rosa's Wedding [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (winner of two Goyas and two awards at the Malaga Film Festival) is inspired by the real-life story of Nevenka Fernández. A councillor for the Treasury of Ponferrada City Council who secured, for the first time in Spain, a conviction against a politician for harassment.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

The film stars Mireia Oriol (The Art of Return [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pedro Collantes
film profile]) and Urko Olazabal (Goya got Best Supporting Actor in Maixabel), supported by Ricardo Gómez (last year in the series La ruta), Carlos Serrano (the series La ley del mar), Lucía Veiga (the series Rapa [+see also:
trailer
series profile]), Luis Moreno (the series Spanish Shame [+see also:
interview: Juan Cavestany
series profile]), Javier Gálego (the series The Mess You Leave Behind), Mercedes del Castillo (the series Instinto) and Font García (On the Fringe [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juan Diego Botto
film profile]). Bollaín herself co-wrote the script with Isa Campo, director of an episode of the series Offworld [+see also:
trailer
interview: Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Isabe…
series profile] and (together with Isaki Lacuesta) of the film The Next Skin [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Isa Campo, Isaki Lacuesta
film profile], and with whom she co-wrote the plot of Maixabel, also inspired by real events and highly politically charged.

The film tells the story of how in 2000, Nevenka Fernández, a 24-year-old councillor for the Treasury in Ponferrada (León), suffers a relentless persecution, both sentimental and professional, by the mayor, a man accustomed to having his way in both political and personal spheres. Nevenka decides to report him, although she knows that she will have to pay a very high price. People around her do not support her, society turns its back on her and she is subjected to a public trial by the media. Her case started the #metoo movement in Spain long before the term was invented.

In the words of Icíar Bollaín, "what impresses me most about Nevenka's story is that it is the story of an abuse that happened in plain sight, in a context that allowed it. She stood up to the most powerful man in her city against the opinion of almost everyone around her and publicly, something epic 20 years ago. And although she won the legal battle, she was left alone, dealing with a society very different from today's, which turned its back on her."

I’m Nevenka is a Movistar Plus+ original film produced by the Spanish companies Kowalski Films, Feelgood Media and Nva Peli AIE, in association with Garbo Produzioni (Italy). Its international sales are managed by Film Factory Entertainment, and it will be distributed in Spain by Buena Vista International, which plans to release the film in cinemas on 27 September.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)