Having started out in 1997. Storyville  invariably manages to be an interesting and controversial series of international documentaries,  opening challenging debates, with films like Trophy: The Big Game Hunting Controversy (2018) and Dreamcatcher: Surviving Chicago’s streets (2015), while others enlighten us, opening up unknown worlds, even on on mundane issues.  

Alexia and Justina Olivo

 In ‘Inheriting the Castle,’ Justina, a simple, indigenous woman,  who worked  all her life selflessly as a maid, and went on to later nurse her wealthy socialite employer, till she died. Having started work there when she was only five-years-old, Justina was rewarded for this lifetime of help and devotion, when she and her daughter are bequeathed a mansion, with its impressive castle-like turret, set, surrealistically, in the middle of the pampas of Argentina.  However, this apparently dazzling bequest, includes the dubious covenant that they can live in it, but never sell it. Are they trapped? 

As time passes, Justina and her daughter find they don’t have the funds to repair the mansion, as it   gradually disintegrates and crumbles around them. Ceilings are collapsing and even the toilet has, apparently, given up the ghost.   Ghost, being the operative word, for it is a ghostly existence.  The castle and their lives are imbued with a surrealistic, unreal quality.  This magnificent pile surrounded by a park full of trees is stunning but this fairy tale castle is slowly becoming a poisoned chalice.

Justina cleans and tries to maintain the place with the affection she always has shown, tenderly brushing the cobwebs off the portrait of her much-loved benefactor. With her daughter, she gradually disposes of the antiques.  Likewise, the herd of cattle that she was bequeathed, also dwindles daily as they have to sell them off, one- by- one.  They are down to the last cow; will they have to sell that one too? There will never be enough to maintain this building.   There is, also, the unanswered question of who Justina video calls at night on her phone, as she wanders around the ground struggling to find a decent signal, is it her prince?   If so, he never materializes.  

Meanwhile, her 21-year-old daughter Alexia spends her day playing the drums or dreaming of training to become the next Formula 4 driver.  Suffering from delayed adolescent angst, she dresses like a 15-year-old teenager, touching on the absurd and weird elements of this tale, as she desperately trying to persuade her mother to let her go to Buenos Aires. But Justina is not about to let her go, and they remain, often bickering, as if Waiting for Godot .

Demanding relatives of the deceased socialite descend without warning, for ‘weekends’ at the castle, without as much as a by-your-leave, expecting Justina to cook and wait on them as she had done when she was the maid, not the owner.  She copes, with difficulty, with this level of disrespect but, would never dream  of rebuking them. The melancholy that pervades the place is also expressed in Justina’s gentle pragmatic, indigenous nature. She lives in the moment. ‘It is what it is’ no more, no less.

Justina calls the herd in with an improvised pipe horn

Their suggestions that she turn the place into some sort of B & B go unheeded as she, probably quite rightly, suspects they have their own needs at heart and she knows that, being uneducated, her hopes of being successful are slim.   Her pick-up truck sits unused, in the grounds, probably because it's devoid of fuel.

Finally, the relatives are sent packing and her daughter has to forgo her plans to travel to Buenos Aires and they decide to remain together, eking out their simple existence.  This little universe lost in the vast pampas may be bizarre, but it is profoundly moving as well.

The photography of the landscapes, lighting and the world of Justina and her daughter are immaculately shot and won well-deserved awards. for the Director of Photography, Nico Miranda and cinematographer Fernando Lorenzale).  This is real ‘spider on the wall’ (not that there are no flies) filmmaking and the intimate and private quality is so powerful, that it’s hard to imagine that a film crew could possibly have been there at all.  

The sense of isolation is intense and we’re pulled into to this atmospheric tale as if it were an Argentine Brothers Grimm’s tale in its unworldliness.  But this princess is more of a Rapunzel in need of rescue, than a Cinderella without her prince.

Argentine award-winning documentary writer/director Martín Benchimol, came across the place while filming an earlier production, The Dread, nearby. As a result, Inheriting the Castle became his first solo feature.  Well -received on the festival circuit it has garnered a number of awards and was picked up by the BBC for the ‘Storyville’ series.

   Martín Benchimol

“INHERITING THE CASTLE” It will be available on the iPlayer for the next year

with English sub-titles.

Director and Screenwriter: Martín Benchimol DOP: Nico Miranda, Fernando Lorenzale Editor: Ana Remón Sound: Sofía Straface Music: José Manuel Gatica Producers: Gema Juárez Allen, Clarisa Oliveri (Gema Films), Mayra Bottero Coproducers: Heidi Fleisher, Julie Paratian (SISTER Productions) World Sales: Luxbox

Cast: Justina Olivo and Alexia Camino Olivo