Abstract

During the Spanish political transition, lesbian women were generally depicted grotesquely and strongly sexualized in comedies, erotic films and horror movies. However, in this sensationalist and aligned panorama, Javier Aguirre brought to the screen in 1978 an autobiographical novel titled Carne Apaleada (Inés Palou, 1975). This work narrates the prison experiences of Berta, a woman who falls in love during her stay in jail with Senta, a young single mother convicted of murder. The film adaptation breaks with the conventions and taboos of its time and it aims to be a realistic representation of the protagonist’s prison live and her lesbian love story. That romantic plot is the common thread and axis of the diegesis that gives coherence to the cinematographic discourse.