Filmmaking often feels intimate because creation reveals what lies inside a person. In the documentary Girls Are Good, that sense of intimacy is amplified: the film becomes a deeply personal portrait of the director and a circle of four actresses who share life stories, names, and a sense of memory that feels almost private yet universal.
Itsaso Arana, a writer and director born in Navarre in 1985, brings confession and memory into focus. The film centers on a director gathering four actresses in a country house for a few summer days to rehearse a play. The cast includes Barbara Lennie, Irene Escolar, Helena Ezquerro, and Itziar Manero, all playing roles that mirror their own experiences and lives. The line between fiction and reality blurs as their personal stories infuse the scenes with truth and resonance.
In the imagery and texture of the film, the actresses are portrayed with warmth and honesty. The project is described as a celebration of beauty and emotional truth, where pain and darkness coexist with moments of tenderness. The filmmaker explains that the work rejects a conventional courtesy tone and embraces a cinema that remains alive and human. It is a film about belief in people and the idea that sharing experiences makes everyone stronger.
During their time together, the participants reveal themselves through play, rehearsal, and candid conversations about life, death, love, and art. Arana invites viewers into an environment where conversations flow freely, and openness is encouraged rather than avoided. The director reflects on personal memory as a key to the film’s texture, recalling how the passing of a loved one shaped her perspective and invited a broader reflection on life. This memory becomes the seed from which the project grows, a desire to revive friendships and celebrate the women who inspire them.
Arana’s approach centers on listening and observing the women as they speak. The decision to assemble memories rather than to construct a distant, polished image signals a commitment to authenticity. The filmmaker acknowledges the challenge of presenting beauty without sensationalism, yet believes in honoring the women as intelligent, funny, and talented individuals. The aim is to capture the genuine complexity of their experiences and to offer a gift to the people involved by including them fully in the cinema they inhabit together.
Careful attention is given to how the film is shot, with attention to the cadence of speech and the rhythm of a life lived in the moment. The director emphasizes that the women offered deeply personal, sometimes difficult experiences, and the movie seeks to keep a human foot on the ground while allowing space for romance and sensuality to emerge naturally. This balance is described as essential to a feminist approach that refuses to impose a fixed idea of women on others, instead inviting a more expansive understanding of female agency and voice.
Girls Are Good presents a luminous fairy tale in which the mundane and the magical coexist. The film features a mill, a princess, and a frog in a symbolic journey that subverts traditional stories through dialogue and humor. It is a timeless meditation on the power of words and voice. The act of speaking, once seen as a public challenge, becomes a bridge to confidence and connection. The filmmaker notes that owning one’s voice—though often daunting—was a central goal in shaping the project, enabling a more direct, expansive dialogue about who we are and what we believe in.
In this portrait, the beauty of the actresses is celebrated without apology. The film embraces their humanity—intelligence, humor, and charm—while also acknowledging the vulnerability that comes with sharing personal truths. The result is a work that is both intimate and expansive, grounded in real emotions yet open to interpretation and wonder. Girls Are Good stands as a testament to cinema where memory, friendship, and art collide to reveal something essential about life and connection.