ALBA. (2021) A NETFLIX SERIES ABOUT SEXUAL VIOLENCE REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
ALBA. (2021) BASED ON THE TURKISH DRAMA SERIES, FATMAGUL’UN SUCU NE?
DIRECTED
BY PABLO GUERRERO, CARLOTA MARTINEZ-PEREDA AND HUMBERTO MIRO.
STARRING
ELENA RIVERA, ERIC MASIP, CATERINA MENGS, ADRIANA OZORES, ALVARO RICO, POL
HERMOSO, JASON FERNANDEZ, FRANKY MARTIN, CANDELA CRUZ AND ANTONIO GIL.
REVIEW BY
SANDRA HARRIS. ©
‘Our power derives from denying
theirs.’
There are almost too many twists and turns in this Spanish
psychological drama-thriller, and it could have done without maybe three of its
thirteen fifty-minute episodes, but I still really enjoyed this. It reminded me
a lot of the English drama series LIAR, which in turn was based on the
Spanish drama series LIES AND DECEIT, as drug-rape is the main topic in all
three Netflix shows.
The thing I’ve noticed with very long, multi-episode series
is that they run out of steam a wee bit before the end and as a result get
twistier and turnier until some of the twists are, frankly, incomprehensible.
Such is the case with ALBA, but I was still glued to it nonetheless.
It’s the story of a young woman called Alba Llorens, who goes
to college in Madrid with her boyfriend, Bruno Costa. One fateful night, on a
return to their mutual hometown, Alba is drug-and-gang-raped by three of the town’s
bad boys. Two of them, Ruben and Jacobo, are members of the super-rich, privileged
Entrerrios family, who practically own the town, and the third man, Hugo, is their
best friend, a soldier.
The twists start up pretty much straight away. The three
rapists are Bruno's, Alba’s boyfriend’s, best mates. He grew up with them and the
four of them are bros, amigos, besties. Do the three sex offenders know that
the woman they’ve preyed upon on this particular warm sultry night is Bruno’s
girlfriend?
The three men have naturally filmed their crime spree on
their fancy phones. The phones and their contents propel the plot along at top
speed; I’ve never seen so many phones in one drama series before. I don’t know
how they’d have managed to make a film of this nature thirty years ago, before
the world and his wife had a smartphone.
What was my point again? Oh yeah, lol. The phones all show
that a fourth man turns up at the rape, which takes place in a quiet outside
corner of this idyllic Spanish coastal town. He’s as high as a kite, but he’s
still there, still present at the violation of this petite, drugged little
college girl by three fit, strong adult males. Is he as culpable as they are?
When Alba finds out the identity of ‘the fourth man,’ not a
film by Carol Reed featuring cinema giant Orson Welles, haha, her life just
implodes in on itself. But, despite her diminutive size, she’s a strong, feisty
woman with a good moral compass and she’s not going to lie down under this
setback. She’s going to fight this heinous crime with all her not inconsiderable courage.
She’ll have her work cut out for her. The super-wealthy familia
Entrerrios closes ranks to protect all four men, in particular the hard-headed
matriarch, Mercedes, Ruben’s fiercely devoted mum and Jacobo’s auntie, and the Entrerrios’
family’s lawyer, the devious, self-serving Eloy Duvall. Eloy looks out for Number One, himself. Make no mistake about that.
In Alba’s corner, she has the sappy Bruno (no, I didn’t
like him!), her devoted best friend Begona, her loyal-to-the-core older
brother Tonio, her lawyer Marta, who’s a really good egg, and, erm, Tirso, the
local drug-dealer. Don’t ask, lol, just watch the series.
The topic of sexual violence is very of the minute. The show
also brings up the deeply disturbing concept of ‘hunting,’ where a male
or group of males on a night out deliberately go in search of a woman who’s
been drinking, drug her drink if they can, then follow her and pounce on her
when they get her alone in a quiet place. You know what happens after that. It’s
enough to make your blood run cold.
I sometimes wonder if some men actually like women at all, or
if they just loathe or even fear them all. The three rapists in ALBA refer
to women as bitches, cunts, sluts, whores, putas, even ‘feminazis’ if
they’re in any way militant. That one is particularly insulting.
Women and girls belong to a sex that needs to be dominated, crushed, put down, kept in its place, shown who’s boss, utterly subjugated. Humiliated, strangled, battered, and dumped on the side of the road when they’ve ‘outlived’ their ‘usefulness.’ What’s terrifying is that this seems to be what these men really feel.
According to Jacobo, when you rape a woman, you must look
into her eyes because ‘our power derives from denying theirs.’ No might
mean no, as the feminists in the show keep repeating, but as long as there are
men like Ruben and Jacobo out there, I’m not sure it entirely matters what women
and their supporters think. Physical strength and brute force trump mere words
every day, don’t they?
Still, women like Alba give us hope, strong, determined women
who won’t rest until their voices are heard. After all, any moron can use brute
force, but it takes a decent human being (like Tonio, Alba’s adorable big
brother) to use that power to protect and cherish rather than to violate
and terrorise.
Another theme the show brings up is that of personal
responsibility. Ruben and Jacobo, in particular, each blame Alba for all their
troubles. It boggles the mind. Coming from the minted Entrerrios family, both men
are used to having their mistakes simply evaporate into the atmosphere courtesy
of the family cheque-book.
As a result, both young men, although handsome and
personable, are rotten to the core. Is Mercedes Entrerrios doing her unbalanced
son Ruben any favours by cushioning him from the consequences of his loathsome
actions?
She thinks it’s a sign of her everlasting love for her
precious boy, but he would benefit more from one spell in prison to answer for his
own actions in drug-and-gang-raping Alba Llorens than from all her loving and
protecting. Excellent series, anyway, and well worth your time.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
Her new book, THIRTEEN STOPS EARLIER, is
out now from Poolbeg Books:
Her debut romantic fiction novel, 'THIRTEEN
STOPS,' is out now from Poolbeg Books:
https://www.amazon.com/Thirteen-Stops-Sandra-Harris-ebook/dp/B089DJMH64
The sequel, ‘THIRTEEN STOPS LATER,’ is
out now from Poolbeg Books:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thirteen-Stops-Later-Book-ebook/dp/B091J75WNB/
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