{ "id": "eppnz7nbtx", "slug": "the-innocence", "title": "The Innocence", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films", "label": "Coming-of-age films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-2010-onward", "label": "Coming-of-age films released 2010 onward", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-2010-onward" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.nongeo.t2001", "label": "Non-geographic · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo.t2001", "path": [ { "id": "geo.nongeo", "label": "Non-geographic", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo" }, { "id": "geo.nongeo.t2001", "label": "Non-geographic · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.nongeo.t2001" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Innocence (La inocencia / La innocència) is Lucía Alemany's 2019 Spanish debut feature, a Catalan-language coming-of-age drama starring Carmen Arrufat as pregnant teen Lis, Goya-nominated and autobiographical.", "snippet": "The Innocence (La inocencia / La innocència) is Lucía Alemany's 2019 Spanish debut feature, a Catalan-language coming-of-age drama starring Carmen Arrufat as pregnant teen Lis, Goya-nominated and autobiographical.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-2010-onward", "markdown": "# The Innocence\n\n**The Innocence** (Catalan: *La innocència*; Spanish: *La inocencia*) is a 2019 Spanish coming-of-age drama and the debut feature of director Lucía Alemany, about a 15-year-old girl in a small Mediterranean town who becomes pregnant after a secret summer relationship with an older boyfriend.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/378214/) • [2](https://2021.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/the-innocence) It premiered in the New Directors section of the 67th San Sebastián International Film Festival and reached Spanish cinemas on 10 January 2020.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/378214/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | *La inocencia* (Catalan: *La innocència*)[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/378214/) |\n| Director and writers | Lucía Alemany's first feature; screenplay by Alemany and Laia Soler Aragonés[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/378214/) |\n| Cast | Carmen Arrufat (Lis), Laia Marull, Sergi López, Joel Bosqued[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/378214/) |\n| Runtime and release | 92–93 minutes; premiered at San Sebastián 2019, released in Spain 10 January 2020[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/378214/) |\n| Production | Turanga Films and Un Capricho de Producciones, with backing from ICEC, IVC, Movistar+, TV3, À Punt Media, RTVE, and ICAA[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/378214/) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_innocence) |\n| Basis | Strongly autobiographical, drawn from Alemany's adolescence in Traiguera, Castellón[2](https://2021.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/the-innocence) |\n| Awards | Two Goya nominations (Best New Actress, Best Original Song); seven Gaudí nominations; wins at Toulouse Cinespaña 2020 and an Honorable Mention at Munich 2021[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8872580/awards/) • [2](https://2021.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/the-innocence) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and themes\n\nLis, played by Carmen Arrufat in her first film role, dreams of leaving her small town to study at a circus academy in Barcelona. During the summer she spends her days with her friends and flirts with Néstor (Joel Bosqued), a boyfriend several years older. The town's lack of privacy and its neighbors' constant gossip force her to keep the relationship secret from her parents, an authoritarian father and a mother preoccupied with other people's opinions. As the local festival ends, she discovers she is pregnant, and the relationship changes her life.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/378214/) • [5](https://www.seminci.com/en/2019/64th-seminci/lucia-alemany-the-innocence-tries-to-show-that-the-patriarchal-figure-is-fading-away/)\n\nAlemany framed the film as a portrait of fading patriarchal authority. \"The film tries to show that the patriarchal authority is already beginning to fade away while it becomes an object of mockery,\" she said at the [Valladolid](https://www.edgepedia.org/valladolid) festival in October 2019, while acknowledging that attitudes like those of the father and the boyfriend once \"made me live with fear.\"[5](https://www.seminci.com/en/2019/64th-seminci/lucia-alemany-the-innocence-tries-to-show-that-the-patriarchal-figure-is-fading-away/) A scholarly survey of unplanned pregnancy in contemporary Spanish cinema places the film among works that present abortion as legal and safe while problematizing the protagonist's situation: as a minor afraid to tell her parents, Lis first resorts to alternative solutions, and the story is staged around isolation and secrecy.[6](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26410397.2026.2713898)\n\n## Autobiographical origins and production\n\n**A personal story.** Alemany, born in Traiguera, Castellón, in 1985, studied at the ESCAC film school in [Catalonia](https://www.edgepedia.org/catalonia). At 17 she fell in love during a summer, became pregnant, and had an abortion; \"I didn't tell anyone,\" she told *El País*. The story waited years to become a film: on 8 June 2015, her 30th birthday, producers sat down to read the script, and production followed. It developed from her 2015 short *14 años y un día* and was the first project to emerge from The Screen, the incubator program of the ECAM film school in Madrid.[7](https://elpais.com/cultura/2019/09/23/actualidad/1569246901_318723.html)\n\nThe film was shot largely in Alemany's home town of Traiguera and nearby Sant Mateu in Castellón, with additional days in La Sénia and Ulldecona in [Tarragona](https://www.edgepedia.org/tarragona); filming ran from 6 August 2018 to 7 September 2019 per the Spanish film database ICAA, and local residents appeared as extras.[8](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=107918) • [9](https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/annex_a_euff_2021_films.docx_0.pdf) The dialogue is in Catalan, in the Valencian variety of the region.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_innocence) • [10](https://cineuropa.org/es/interview/378563)\n\n**Improvisation within a script.** The cast, which included experienced actors Sergi López, Laia Marull, and Joel Bosqued, spent several weeks rehearsing and adapting the script to their own experiences. \"Although we knew it was an improvisation, we kept working on the script at all times,\" Alemany said; producers Belén Sánchez and Lina Badenes admitted the improvisation initially frightened them but called it a risk worth taking.[5](https://www.seminci.com/en/2019/64th-seminci/lucia-alemany-the-innocence-tries-to-show-that-the-patriarchal-figure-is-fading-away/) Alemany has described her approach as grounded in cinéma vérité, minimizing the line between reality and fiction to draw maximum truth from the performers.[11](https://www.academiadecine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Aca232web.pdf)\n\n## Release and reception\n\nAfter its [San Sebastián](https://www.edgepedia.org/san-sebastian) premiere in the New Directors section, the film screened in the Spanish Cinema section of the 64th Seminci (Valladolid) in October 2019 and opened commercially in Spain on 10 January 2020, distributed by Filmax.[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/378214/) • [5](https://www.seminci.com/en/2019/64th-seminci/lucia-alemany-the-innocence-tries-to-show-that-the-patriarchal-figure-is-fading-away/) It was one of the first films to benefit from The Screen support program, and Cineuropa's profile notes that it \"shimmers with truth.\"[1](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/378214/)\n\nCritical response was positive. Rotten Tomatoes records a 100% approval rating from six reviews.[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_innocence) Spanish critics praised its freshness and honesty: Mikel Zorrilla of Espinof wrote that many similar films exist \"but none have the freshness that Lucía Alemany brings,\" and Fotogramas found \"nothing new here, but it all sounds honest, considerate, and is made with joy.\"[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_innocence) Fotogramas also called it \"a note-perfect and authentic portrayal of small-town life on the east coast of Spain.\"[2](https://2021.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/the-innocence)\n\n## Awards\n\nThe film received 14 wins and 28 nominations overall according to IMDb.[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8872580/awards/) At the 2020 [Goya Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/goya-awards) it was nominated for Best New Actress (Carmen Arrufat) and Best Original Song (\"Allí en la arena\" by Toni M. Mir).[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8872580/awards/) It was nominated for seven Gaudí Awards, including Best Director and Best Catalan Language Film, and won Best Supporting Actress there.[2](https://2021.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/the-innocence) At Toulouse Cinespaña 2020 it won Best Actress and Best Director, and at the Munich Film Festival 2021 it took the CineVision Award Honorable Mention, with the jury citing an \"impressive film by Lucía Alemany about the universal state of confinement and captivity in which many women continue to live.\"[2](https://2021.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/the-innocence) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8872580/awards/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [The Innocence (La inocencia), Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/378214/)\n2. [The Innocence, Moro Spanish Film Festival 2021](https://2021.spff.palace.pipelabs.dev/films/the-innocence)\n3. [The Innocence, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_innocence)\n4. [The Innocence (2019) Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8872580/awards/)\n5. [Lucía Alemany: \"The Innocence tries to show that the patriarchal figure is fading away\", Seminci](https://www.seminci.com/en/2019/64th-seminci/lucia-alemany-the-innocence-tries-to-show-that-the-patriarchal-figure-is-fading-away/)\n6. [Representation of unplanned pregnancy in contemporary Spanish cinema, Taylor & Francis](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26410397.2026.2713898)\n7. [\"Una luz al tabú del aborto adolescente\", El País](https://elpais.com/cultura/2019/09/23/actualidad/1569246901_318723.html)\n8. [La inocencia, ICAA Film Database](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=107918)\n9. [Annex A, EUFF 2021 Films, European External Action Service](https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/annex_a_euff_2021_films.docx_0.pdf)\n10. [Lucía Alemany, directora de La inocencia, Cineuropa interview](https://cineuropa.org/es/interview/378563)\n11. [Academia de Cine document on La inocencia](https://www.academiadecine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Aca232web.pdf)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Coming-of-age films › Coming-of-age films released 2010 onward*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-innocence", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-innocence.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Innocence\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-innocence. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Innocence](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-innocence)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-innocence](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-innocence). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Innocence\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-innocence. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Innocence is Lucía Alemany's 2019 Spanish debut feature, a Catalan-language coming-of-age drama starring Carmen Arrufat as pregnant teen Lis, Goya-nominated and autobiographical." }