Competition: “The Headless Woman” by Lucrecia Martel

The Competition continues today with the presentation of The Headless Woman, the latest offering from Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel. The director, who was a member of the Official Competition Jury in 2006 and who previously was in the running for a Palme d’Or with The Holy Girl, is back on the Croisette with a story about a woman who has a minor automobile accident, which then mysteriously proceeds to wreak havoc with her life. Actress María Onetto, in the role of Verónica, becomes distracted while driving, and runs over something. Some days later, accompanied by her husband, she returns to the “scene of the crime” and finds a dead dog. The incident seems to be elucidated and life goes on, but soon a dead person is discovered.

This film stems from the nightmares that the director experiences and in which she kills someone. “In my nightmares, I am an assassin, and I wake up crying because I no longer believe in God, who could be the only one capable of comforting me with his mercy. The only one I respect,” confides the director. “Then I dry my tears and feel that I am a good person, that it has all been a bad dream and that I would never kill anyone.”