The Barcelona Vampiress

The Vampira de Barcelona is an ambitious and conceptually attractive filmic work set in 1912 , a few years after the Tragic Week and the ashes of those lugrubian events still remain. The Tragic Week (1909) was a series of violent confrontations between the Spanish army and anarchists, freemasons, socialists and republicans of Barcelona and other cities in Catalonia, Spain, during the last week of July 1909. It was caused by the calling-up of reserve troops by Premier Antonio Maura to be sent as reinforcements when Spain renewed military-colonial activity in Morocco on 9 July, in what is known as the Second Rif War. Many of these reservists were the only breadwinners for their families, while the wealthy were able to hire substitutes , the figureheads most associated with the unrest were Alejandro Lerroux and Francisco Ferrer . In early 20th century , Barcelona was being embellished by the great architect Gaudi who was building La Sagrada Familia , Casa Mila, La Pedrera and other monuments that the bourgeoisie considered eccentric constructions and made fun of them . At the start of the twentieth century Barcelona there're two sides, living alongside one another . The first, bourgeois and modernist, the other filthy and sordid. Little Teresa goes missing shocking the country. When Teresa Guitart, the young daughter of a rich family, goes missing, the news sends shock-waves through the whole country. The police soon have a suspect: Enriqueta Marti (Nora navas) , a woman who's also known as "The Barcelona Vampiress". The addict journalist Sebastià Comas (Roger Casamajor) decides to venture into the Raval neighborhood's maze of streets, brothels and secrets, where he will find out the dark truth around the kidnappings and macabre murders of children that the Vampiress is accused of. His investigations will reveal a sleazy elite, who will stop at nothing to hide their tawdry vices.

La Vampira de Barcelona is a drama with rather sordid and eerie elements of intrigue. It introduces us to the underworld of a nocturnal , dirty and dark Barcelona, where brothels served high society to give free rein to their obsessions and most unspeakable vices , then police start investigating Enriqueta Martí, the "Vampiress of Raval", they cover a much more sinister affair . The contrast between the bourgeoisie and the lower classes is clearly shown , including exploitation and sex trafficking in the misery of the most disadvantaged people. There is a critique of social differences that can be extrapolated to today's society : the upper and low classes . It reformulates Barcelona at the beginning of the 20th century, through a black and white cinematography that introduces elements of color to highlight lust and violence. It is a way of giving visibility to what you wanted to hide . In that sense, despite the wonderful photographic work of cameraman Josep M. Civit , I think an even more contrasting and grainy texture was needed to highlight the decadence of that underworld . There is a certain approach to the expressionism of Fritz Lang and his classic film ¨M, el vampiro de Düsseldorf¨ (1931). La Vampira de Barcelona is also a story about evil and about the manipulation of public opinion by the powers at the time , the mass media and politicians . Not surprisingly, both director Lluís Danés and scriptwriters are experts in taking works denouncing these thorny issues to images . During its length , it is an overlong film , it suffers from some slowdowns and flaws , but La Vampira de Barcelona is a surprising flick that is always visually enjoyable in spite of its sordid and gloomy elements . A strange work that wanders through television fiction , art and cinematic essay and between theatrical scenery and visual experimentation . If the British have Jack the Ripper, Spaniards have La Vampira de Barcelona . In the interpretive section we find great names from the Spanish scenario , such as : Roger Casamajor as a druggie reporter , an elegantly ruthless Madame/opera singer played by Nuria Prims , Sergi López as a corrupt cop , Bruna Cusí , Francesc Orella, , Mario Gas or Pablo Derqui, although if I had to highlight someone I would choose Nora Navas in the role of the suspicious vampire.

Adding more remarks about Enriqueta Martí i Ripollés (1868-1913) : she was a Spanish child serial killer, kidnapper, prostitute and procuress of children. She was called "The Vampire of carrer Ponent", and "The Vampire of the Raval" in the press. Some researchers have, however, asserted that she was not a killer of children, but rather a person with mental disorders who can only be proven reliably to have abducted one young girl, Teresita Guitart. They also contend that the black legend that is attributed to her could not be demonstrated. In 1909 Martí opened her own brothel, which attracted some of the more affluent in Barcelona. Some of them had unusual desires which she accommodated for a premium. Some expressed a desire for children. To accommodate them, she dressed as a pauper during the day and frequented the poorer parts of the city. When she came across unaccompanied children she abducted them to prostitute them in her brothel. She begged and joined bread queues at the monasteries to find the most abandoned looking children. By night she attended the El Liceu, the Casino de la Arrabassada, and other places where the wealthy of Barcelona gathered likely offering her services as a procurer of children. At the same time as she was prostituting children, she was also practicing as a witch-doctor. She claimed drinking the blood of children could cure tuberculosis, and offered creams and elixirs that could stop ageing and prolong life. The ingredients she used to make her remedies came from the remains of the children that she was killing, who ranged from 5 up to 15 years of age. She used the fat, blood, hair, and bones. For this reason, she did not have problems disposing of her victims. Martí offered salves, ointments, filters, poultices, and potions, especially to treat tuberculosis, which was highly feared at the time, and various other incurable diseases. The wealthy paid large sums of money for these remedies. During the Tragic Week of 1909, she was arrested at her flat on Barcelona's carrer Minerva, along with a young man from a wealthy family, and accused of running a brothel that offered sexual services from children. Thanks to her contacts with Barcelona's high society using her services, she was never tried. Over the next three years many more children disappeared, but as they were from poor families police investigations into their disappearance were minimal. It is suspected that she kidnapped a large number of children over a span of twenty years. She was finally arrested in a flat in El Raval; more evidence was found in flats in Barcelona where she had lived previously. Forensic experts managed to differentiate a total of twelve children with what little evidence they were able to recover. In spite of suspicions, and because Martí did not tally her activities, experts are unsure if she was Spain's deadliest killer. It is clear that she acted for many years in Barcelona. The public suspected that someone was kidnapping babies, and many children disappeared without a trace causing dread among the population.