Carlos Vermouth, winner of the 2014 San Sebastián Golden Shell, has been accused of sexual assault by three women.. Two film employees and a student accused the director of using his position, power and influence to engage in sexual relations with them. All actions were performed without consent and contained elements of violence. The victims told the newspaper A country– which includes an extensive account of their testimony – that in all cases the director used his position to force them to submit to aggressive actions.
Carlos Vermut is considered one of the most avant-garde directors of Spanish cinema. The director, who studied illustration at the Number Diez art school in Madrid, spent most of his years in the genre drawing for the newspaper El Mundo. By 2006, he had already published his first comic book. red banyan which was nominated for several nominations andat the 25th International Comics Fair in Barcelona. Already at that time, his penchant for the perverse and frightening was an integral part of his work.
But it was in the next decade, when the variety of topics that interested him began to concentrate more on terror, on unsettling tension. From your collection of stories Psychosodabefore Pluto BRB Nero, Maripili’s Revenge , in the same universe as Alex de la Iglesia’s series. Thanks to his experience, he created a production company Psycho-fueled films and released his first feature film diamond flashregardless. The film, financed by the director himself, was an immediate success.
Then his most famous works appeared: Magical girl, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2014. It was also presented in the official program of the San Sebastian Film Festival. With its dark and twisted theme, the film created a sensation and was an immediate success. His second work will be released in 2022. Manticore a dark piece about a pedophile and the horror that surrounds his life. The film was shown at the Sitges International Film Festival out of competition.
Charges against Carlos Vermouth
In events that took place between May 2014 and the early days of February 2022, Vermouth was involved in three different attacks. According to testimony, the director used brute force to subdue one of the women. Although she refused verbally and physically – the description of events includes, as she expressed out loud, that she did not want to pursue a relationship and was resisting the director – Wermuth subdued her. In addition, he tried to strangle her and forced her to have sex.
In the other two cases, the attacks included touching, violence and degrading treatment. Always as a result of non-consensual sexual relationships, which the director imposed through pressure, manipulation and physical violence. In at least two cases, victims’ accounts describe how the director used promises of better work to get closer to them. This subsequently led to situations of violence and rape that they suffered at the hands of the aggressor.
And what does the director answer?
According to the newspaper El PAÍS, which interviewed Vermouth three times, he denies knowing about “the use of violence against any woman.” The director, who admits to practicing what he calls “rough sex”, insists these were always situations in which he ensured his partner’s consent. In fact, one of the points he makes is that he recognizes the importance of making sure his partner approves of aggressive sexual practices.
However, he also suggests that he acknowledges that it is likely that some of the women he had relationships with may have felt uncomfortable. To which he apologizes, explaining that he has “no way of knowing” that something like that happened. When repeatedly questioned about his behavior, the director openly admitted that his sex life was “promiscuous and that he had sex that could lead to situations like this.” Any time, Wermuth acknowledges that victims may have been coerced or that there may have been physical attacks in the midst of a relationship or non-consensual situation.
A shadow fact that’s only getting worse
The victims explained to the newspaper that they did not report the incident for fear of losing their jobs or being left out of the world of Spanish cinema. Something that also resulted in their names being kept secret to avoid reprisals or situations that compromised their integrity. At all, A countryclaims to have given an affidavit in which They describe in detail what happened and correspond to a specific complaint about the violence they suffered.
Source: Hiper Textual
