2001. Buenos Aires. Even outside the US, the movement towards online friends and relationships is starting to take shape. The Virgin of the Quarry Lake follows Natalia (Dolores Oliverio), an aimless teenager who lives with her grandmother Rita (Luisa Merelas) as she navigates a complicated love triangle (and at times, love square) with her friend Diego. The film adapts two Mariana Enriquez short stories, “Our Lady of the Quarry” and “The Cart,” giving more context and backstory to the characters.
The opening shot shows Natalia to be a sexually frustrated teen, interrupted by commotion happening outside her grandmother’s home. She, and the rest of her street neighbors, venture outside to see a homeless man being beaten up by a neighbor. Eventually he departs, but he leaves behind his stench-filled cart in the middle of the street. Throughout the film, various neighbors return to examine the cart and believe it has brought a curse on the neighborhood after a series of violent, tragic events befall the people.
Combining these two short stories takes away from the more interesting one, which is following Natalia as she tries to win Diego’s favor over Sylvia, his older friend that he met through an online chat room. Natalia is quiet and reserved, hoping things will come to her rather than chasing them herself. Sylvia is the opposite. With cool music taste and connections all around the city, things happen only because she wills it. It’s easy to see why Diego is interested in her from early on in the film, and the tension between them and Natalia is utterly engrossing. Any momentum brought on by this side of the story comes to a halt any time we return to the cart outside Natalia’s house, but it does leave one screaming “What’s in the cart!” once they cut back to it.
So much of the communication between Natalia, Diego, and their friend group is through an online instant message system akin to the old reliable AOL. Natalia doesn’t have a computer at home, so she must go to an internet cafe that charges by the minute just to get updates on her companions. As Sylvia continues to work her way into the friend group, Natalia becomes more and more desperate and depressed about her connection with Diego.
There’s an aspect of teen angst that director Laura Casabe and Oliverio channel through Natalia that a lot of films about young people get wrong. Her anguish is almost entirely internal, without spilling out in big emotional moments or monologues that make sure the audience gets the picture. Even when she’s talking back to her grandmother or friends, it’s in terse statements at low volume. That’s the plight of teens in the 21st century, an inability to express emotions so much so that they fester inside your mind until it becomes unbearable. Angst often manifests in these more quiet ways, leading people to be less talkative and mopey like Natalia.
It’s hard to overstate how amazing Oliverio is in the lead role. She’s in almost every frame, and director of photography Diego Tenorio Hernandez utilizes incredibly long, borderline uncomfortable, close-ups of Natalia where Oliverio can’t hide behind the editing. Her performance is quietly emotional and empathetic, even as multiple people question how good of a person she is throughout the film. Her best scene partner is by far Luisa Merelas’ Rita, who has to relay a lot of hard truths to her granddaughter despite Natalia’s melancholy.
The Virgin of the Quarry Lake is a strong story about teenage angst, individual agency, and the woes of those with a little too much time on their hands. While the film hits a few speed bumps via the shopping cart left in the road, the main story hums along with a brilliant lens into being a teen in the early 2000s. It’ll leave you yearning for the days of AOL, listening to CDs, finding things to do with your friends to combat the impending boredom.
The Virgin of the Quarry Lake had its World Premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
Director: Laura Casabé
Writer: Benjamin Naishtat
Rated: NR
Runtime: 95m
The Virgin of the Quarry Lake is a strong story about teenage angst, individual agency, and the woes of those with a little too much time on their hands.
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GVN Rating
Proud owner of three movie passes. Met Harrison Ford at a local diner once. Based in Raleigh, NC.
