The Virgin of Lust

The Virgin of Lust (La virgen de la lujuria) is a 2002 Spanish-Mexican-Portuguese drama film directed by Arturo Ripstein from a screenplay by Paz Alicia Garciadiego. It is loosely based on Max Aub's story La verdadera historia de la muerte de Francisco Franco (1960).

Plot
The film is set in Mexico in the 1940s. Nacho works for tyrannical racist Don Lázaro in the Café Ofelia. He falls in love with Spanish prostitute Lola.

Release
Distributed by Lauren Films, the film was released theatrically in Spain on 6 September 2002.

Reception
Deborah Young of Variety considered that patient viewers are rewarded by "a memorable vision of sexual obsession as an everyday matter, paralleled to the devastation wreaked by great movements of history and politics".

Ángel Fernández-Santos of El País considered the film to be "a magnificent direct hit of surreal cinema between the eyes that fascinates and, unfortunately, also makes you dizzy".

Awards

 * Fipreci Prize at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival (2002)