Five friends meet at the house of one of them. It’s Javi (Jabato)’s birthday. Everything seems like the usual: some beers, some joints, music, a cake… Someone knocks on the door. It’s Sara, a young woman who unsettles some of them with her arrival. Sara is the gift for Jabato. She is a prostitute hired by the birthday boy’s brother so that he can lose his virginity. She seems to be in control, but she just seems…
This is broadly the plot of The Boys, the new short produced by Cosmo, directed by Jaime Dezcallar and which premieres tomorrow on the channel, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. A short that gives goosebumps because it does not aim to denounce violence against women that is considered common but rather a surprisingly normalized sexist violence that, in the words of its director, is “terrifying”: prostitution.
“I knew that we had to build a story around sexist violence and Alberto Lafuente – Director of Communication, Marketing and On Air of Cosmopolitan Television – proposed to me to talk about prostitution,” says Dezcallar. “I ended up talking to people who are dedicated to this and who helped me build a story that I believe is credible, reasonable, and at the same time, terrifying and sordid,” he says.
“Well, guys, we can do a lot of things,” Sara, played by Catalina Sopelana (Laws of the Border), tells them when they arrive at the party. “And what can’t we do? Disrespect. If there is something I don’t like and I tell you, even if it seems like bullshit, you either stop or I quit. You can’t take photos or record videos and any questions you have, let me know.” “You say and that’s it. I’m here to have fun.” She sets the rules at the beginning. She has reached an agreement with Jabato’s brother: 150 euros for the birthday boy only, 500 if everyone. While Jabato, shy and with sociability problems, seems tense at first, the rest of his friends, who had no idea that this was going to be the gift, also show his reluctance. But only in the beginning. “If Javi doesn’t fuck like that, he’s never going to fuck,” says Jabato’s brother, played by Gabriel Sánchez (Faggot Lost) to justify having hired the sexual services of a prostitute. “It’s not like fucking was a human right,” the friend replies, probably more indignant or concerned about the situation. Everything is said.
In Spain, one in 10 young people has paid for sexual relations
The boys reflect a worrying reality: in Spain one in 10 young people has paid for sexual relations. According to INJUVE’s Youth in Spain Report 2020, 10.6% of young people between 15 and 29 years old acknowledged having used prostitution. Behind these chilling data are people and a serious problem of objectification of women, access to pornography at very young ages and eroticization of sexual violence. “These are topics that are not talked about so openly and it is much more frequent than one thinks,” says Dezcallar.
When we talk about prostitution, about people who “go whoring”, we almost always think of middle-aged men, with their whiskey and their cigar, but “apparently it is much more common among young people,” reflects the director of the short . The world of prostitution was very far away from Dezcallar and that is why what he did was “bring it home”, that is, “tell the story of a group of boys from a social environment that I understood.”
Catalina Sopelana (Sara) did not hesitate for a second when she was asked to participate in the short: “It seemed interesting to me as an actress to put myself in such a violent and extreme situation.” Because what begins as a gift, like the moment in which a friend is going to lose his virginity “because if he doesn’t do it like that he will never do it,” suddenly becomes a form of violence that is rarely seen. identifies. Jabato “comes up” and ends up throwing Sara against a table. Everything gets out of control, or rather, it is when Sara loses control of the situation.
“The interesting thing,” explains Sopelana, “is to see how she starts out being the one who has control of the situation and how throughout the short she loses it.” “This short puts you in front of a reality that happens, that should not be ignored and it is a reality that many young people like those seen in the short, who could be your colleagues, your cousins ??or your children, are exercising this type of violence,” he adds.
Aside from the debate on pornography and its regulation, psychologists and educators have warned that its consumption at an early age, increasingly common thanks to electronic devices, is conditioning the construction and perception that young people have of sexuality.
According to the Save the Children report (Sexual Mis)information: Pornography and Adolescence, 62.5% of adolescents between 13 and 17 years old have seen pornography at some point. From this approach, pornography, according to experts, shows women as subordinates. In these videos, men are the ones who exercise control, dominate and humiliate women and even exercise explicit violence against them. What happens to Sara, what Jabato does with Sara without intention, but driven by that pornography with which she has been sexually educated.
Thanks to this short film, I believe that many of us have realized that there is no sexual education that supports you.
“You can’t do the same thing in life as you do in the movies.” It is the phrase that his brother says to Jabato when Sara leaves the room badly injured. “Thanks to this short, I believe that many of us have realized that there is no sexual education that supports you and helps you have a good relationship with your sexuality,” confesses Sánchez (Jabato).
“My approach when writing was, what happens in the best of cases, when the prostitute knows that she is exercising it freely, that the prices have been agreed upon, that she has the seal of sustainability, kilometer zero and proximity?” Dezcallar asks. And he answers: “Putting ourselves in the best case scenario, because we already know very well what the worst case scenario is and who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, it still seemed terrifying to me. This story has humor and has tenderness, but for It’s terror to me, the truth is.”
