Paulina

Paulina (original Spanish title La patota) is a 2015 Argentine drama film directed by Santiago Mitre, in which a young Buenos Aires lawyer abandons her career to teach in a poor border region of Argentina and, after being raped by a gang of local youths, refuses to abandon her post or pursue conventional justice.¹ It is a remake of Daniel Tinayre's Argentine film La patota from 1960 (some sources date it 1961), and it was Mitre's second feature after El estudiante (2011).^{2 • 3} The film premiered in the Critics' Week at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Nespresso Grand Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize, and it later took the Tiantan Award for Best Picture at the Beijing International Film Festival.^{4 • 5}

Production and origins

The film originated as a commission from Ignacio Viale, grandson of Mirtha Legrand, and producer Axel Kuschevatzky, and was developed by Mitre and Mariano Llinás as a modern reworking of Tinayre's 1960 classic.¹³ It was produced as a co-production between Argentina (La Unión de los Ríos), Brazil (Videofilmes), and France (Full House, the label of Borsalino Productions and Maneki Films), with international sales handled by Versatile.^{8 • 14} Gustavo Biazzi was the cinematographer, Delfina Castagnino, Leandro Aste, and Joana Collier edited, and Nicolás Varchausky composed the music.¹

Mitre said in a Cannes interview that he had never seen the original La patota before being asked to adapt it, watched it once, and chose not to see it again; he was interested not in explaining Paulina but in raising questions, and he rejected the original's moral framework, which he found too tied to religion.¹⁵

Relation to the 1960 original

Tinayre's La patota, scripted by Eduardo Borrás, told of a woman who, after being raped and becoming pregnant, decides to have her child and not denounce her attackers.¹⁶ The remake shifts the setting from Buenos Aires slums to a semi-rural area near the Paraguayan border and, according to La Nación, changes the film's moral center: where Tinayre's film spoke of forgiveness and a transitional moment for women, the remake centers on one woman's decision to understand marginality and violence and to live with what happened to her.¹⁷ The remake also moves the focus from the perpetrators to the victim and uses the story to address social and political inequality on Argentina's border with Paraguay and Brazil.¹⁸

Style and reception

The film opens with a single choreographed shot of nearly nine minutes that establishes the situation, the characters, and the conflicting points of view.¹³ Mitre then uses shifting focus and flashbacks, recounting the assault through Paulina's statements to police, doctors, and counselors and also through the eyes of her rapist Ciro, a sawmill worker humiliated by his ex-girlfriend; the multiplication of viewpoints keeps Paulina herself inscrutable.²

Critics generally praised Dolores Fonzi's performance. The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney called the film tough and arresting, sustained by her powerful performance, while Variety's Ben Kenigsberg described a fierce performance as a heroine whose actions baffle those around her.⁹ Recurring criticisms concerned the opacity of the protagonist's psychology; the Village Voice found the film frustrating for that reason, and RogerEbert.com called it thoughtful but not necessarily fulfilling.⁹ The film holds a Metascore of 70 and a 89% Tomatometer.^{9 • 10}

Release and awards

After its Cannes premiere in May 2015, the film opened in Argentina on 18 June 2015, in Spain on 27 November 2015, and in France on 13 April 2016.^{1 • 6 • 8} At Cannes it won the Critics' Week Nespresso Grand Prize, a €10,000 award previously given to filmmakers including Guillermo del Toro, Gaspar Noé, and Alejandro González Iñárritu, and the FIPRESCI Prize for the parallel sections.^{4 • 12} At San Sebastián 2015 it won the Horizontes Latinos Grand Prize, the Youth prize, and the TVE-Otra Mirada prize.⁸ Fonzi won Best Actress at the Turin Film Festival, where the film also took the Special Jury Prize and Best Photography, and later the Premio Sur, Fénix, and Platino awards for Best Actress.^{8 • 19} Further honors included the Special Jury Prize at Chicago, the Bronze Pyramid at Cairo, Best Actress and Best Scenario at Lima, and the FIPRESCI Prize at Havana.⁸ In April 2016 it won the Tiantan Award for Best Picture at the 6th Beijing International Film Festival.⁵

References

1. La patota (2015), Cinenacional.com
2. Paulina – first look, Sight and Sound (BFI)
3. La patota / Paulina film card, 33° Torino Film Festival
4. Cannes: 'Paulina' leads Critics' Week winners, Screen Daily
5. La Patota ganó el premio Tiantan a Mejor Película, Embajada Argentina en China
6. Paulina (LA PATOTA), Catálogo ICAA
7. Paulina (2015) review, Eye for Film
8. Paulina, Borsalino Productions
9. Paulina critic reviews, Metacritic
10. Paulina, Rotten Tomatoes
11. Paulina (La Patota), Cineuropa
12. "Paulina": Rape "Victim" Who Turns the Tables, FIPRESCI
13. En memoria de Paulina, Página/12 Radar
14. Paulina: one woman's fight, for and against everything, Cineuropa
15. Entretien avec le réalisateur Santiago Mitre, Semaine de la Critique
16. No pedimos al público que entienda a Paulina sino que la acompañe, Gara
17. La Patota: similitudes y diferencias entre la original y la remake, La Nación
18. Interview: Santiago Mitre on Casting Dolores Fonzi, Remezcla
19. Paulina (2015), FilmAffinity

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2015 to 2019 › Drama films 2015 and 2016 › Released in 2015

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

© 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI. Free to use with credit under the Edgepedia Community License. Developers: read Edgepedia by API or MCP. Embed a reference card.