‘The Bad Names’ review: Pablo Molinero shines as real Spanish intersex figure Florencio Pla

Dir/scr: Marc Ortiz Prades. Spain. 2025. 110mins

A Valencian-language historic drama whose message resonates with the id politics of the current, Marc Ortiz Prades’ debut The Dangerous Names tells the solemn, haunting story of the troubled lifetime of Florencio Pla, better-known in Spain as ‘La Pastora’, the Shepherdess. An intersex individual from early twentieth century rural Valencia, Florencio’s distinction made him a born outsider, and Ortiz Prades’ movie, a part of a long-overdue rehabilitation of this tragic determine from the footnotes of historical past, recounts with compassion and care a brutal life lived in spectacularly brutal instances.

Molinero by no means permits us to overlook the fragility inside this hulking, taciturn determine 

The function premieres on house turf in Seville, and additional competition screenings are seemingly for this intriguing movie which has discovered up to date relevance within the unlikeliest of locations.

In 1917, in a village within the mountains of japanese Spain, a baby is born. The physician unexpectedly decides it’s a lady, thereby condemning Florencio – a reputation he was solely formally assigned within the latter a part of his life, after years of being known as the ‘unhealthy names’ of the title – to a lifetime of distress and alienation. Often known as a baby as Teresa (Adria Nebo) – the primary of Florencio’s ’unhealthy names’ – and sporting ladies’ garments, he tends and talks to the sheep and is inevitably mocked by the native schoolchildren. 

Following the loss of life of his father, Florencio (now performed by Alex Bausa) bids farewell to his mom (Patricia Bargallo); one in every of a number of wrenching scenes in a movie that nonetheless diligently sidesteps sentiment. He begins to work humping large bales of wool round from village to village as he seeks, however fails to seek out, recognition as the person he feels himself to be: one in every of his shoppers is Maria (Raquel Ferri), for whom Florencio will harbour a secret however unnameable love, regardless of her relationship with Miquel (Jaime Madaula).

With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil Conflict, Florencio (now performed by Pablo Molinero) presents to affix his native unit on the Republican aspect, however is flatly turned down with the remark that “conflict is not any place for you”. The issue for Florencio is that there isn’t a place for him in any respect – till after the conflict is over, when he’s chosen, due to his usefulness as a troublesome man who clothes like a girl, to be a member of the maquis, the political resistance teams who proceed to reside and fought within the mountains. (Florencio is now often known as ‘Durruti’, after the fabled anarchist chief.) This part is the liveliest, with the maquis residing in fixed concern of discovery by the Civil Guard, and Florencio encountering a type of begrudging comradeship. The script is nice on the little, native particulars: unhealthy names, for instance, is the time period given to the nicknames utilized by the maquis to keep away from discovery.

Later, the real-life Florencio would purchase the nickname of ‘La Pastora’, a terrifying determine framed by Francoist propaganda as a wild outlaw, half man and half lady, to whom any unexplained murders of fascists might simply be ascribed. Sadly nonetheless, Florencio’s social significance inside Spain goes largely unexplained within the movie, robbing it of its wider which means for non-Spanish audiences.

Molinero performs Florencio because the illiterate, tragic and remoted determine he really was, condemned to a lifetime of being what others deemed him – or relatively his physique – to be. The actor fulfils this tough task – half man, half historic image – by by no means permitting us to overlook the fragility inside this hulking, taciturn determine together with his haunted eyes. However neither does the efficiency go very deep psychologically, since Florencio, lastly a practical type of chap, has clearly determined to stoically endure his destiny relatively than undergo.

A few years are spanned, and lots of minor characters transfer out and in. Construction is provided by means of six titled chapters, giving the drama a typically fragmented really feel. Alberto Banares’s images renders the grinding poverty of those oppressed communities, while celebrating the majestic magnificence from the forested landscapes of this a part of Spain. However the visuals can really feel contrived, as in a single placing however too-picturesque picture of the silhouetted band of maquis making their approach alongside a mountain ridge. 

Using a boxy 4:3 ratio conveys the sense of emotion being held in examine, permitting for a tighter give attention to Florencio’s enduring ache in an unforgiving ethical local weather the place shows of feeling are too hardly ever encountered. The haunting rating, dominated by ethereal feminine voices, is usually actually lovely, however extra typically darkish and discordant, and is vital to establishing the movie’s typically ominous tone.