When a vandal wreaks havoc in a sleepy Puerto Rican town, an unpopular young girl sets out to find the criminal and become the town hero. She is shocked to capture an admired classmate and struggles with enacting her form of justice on a person no one thought capable of wrong.

SYNOPSIS

Sixteen year-old Pelícano lives a quiet life with her grandmother in the coastal neighborhood of Loiza, Puerto Rico. When sheʼs not visiting the beach with her grandmother, she tries desperately to be a respected dancer in her bomba class. But there is something happening in her community. Someone is destroying property, breaking into peopleʼs cars, spray painting curse words on homes. After the vandal destroys her grandmotherʼs garden, Pelícano plans on capturing the criminal, and imagines the dark ways she will punish him. She also knows if she catches him, she can become the neighborhood hero and win the respect of her Bomba classmates who make fun of her.

Pelícano is surprised to capture Lila, a fellow Bomba dancer, and the best in the class. In revenge, Pelícano holds Lila captive in an abandoned shack near the beach where she buries her up to her neck in sand. Day after day, Pelícano enacts her punishment, demands that Lila confess her crimes and pay back the damage sheʼs done. Lila refuses, verbally abuses her, and threatens Pelícano with retribution once she is free. Pelícano intensifies her torturous revenge on her classmate, but also struggles with how to hide her victim as the police begin to look for Lila.

As the days pass, something strange happens. Lila starts hallucinate and play out her troubled relationship with her alcoholic father and his girlfriend whom she detests. Pelícano sees not just a girl whom she hates, but someone who is also with human problems. Yet, she refuses to feel pity for her captive.

A hurricane makes its way to the island and Pelícano decides to free a delirious Lila right as the storm arrives. But as it clears, it is too late. The town grieves over the loss of one of its most talented teenagers while simultaneously welcoming the end of the vandalism. Hoping to stop the encroaching police investigation, Pelícano frames the murder on one of Lila’s most hated enemies: Lila’s father’s girlfriend.

PROJECT DETAILS

• WRITTEN BY: Nicole Elmer; to be DIRECTED BY: Jorge Sermini

• STATUS: Development

• GENRE: Psychological Thriller

• LANGUAGE: Spanish

• SEEKING: co-productions, building team, financing

• RECOGNITION: second round judging for Sundance Development Track; pre-selection for Hubert Bals Fund 2020; accepted into NALIP Latino Media Market 2020; selected for Cine Qua Non Lab Story Lines, 2021

ADDITIONAL CONTENT

Treatment (contact info@bluepaperfilm.com)

Lookbook (contact info@bluepaperfilm.com)

TONALLY COMPARABLE FILMS, INFLUENCES

Good Girl, Bad Girl will appeal to an audience that enjoys dark no-apologies arthouse thrillers. The focus on troubled youth is reminiscent of Benny’s Video (1992), a film by German master director, Michael Haneke. Comparable in style and tone are coming-of-age dramas such as Chop Shop (2007), The Return (2003), Heavenly Creatures (1994), and City of God (2002).

As the film explores the relationship of the psyche to the exterior world, the film is also embraces magical realism through the use of iconic figures unique to Loizan culture such as the Vejigante.

Music is a huge part of this film and for this, we make ample use of the sounds and performance of Bomba, dance with roots in the African diaspora of Puerto Rico.

STATEMENT OF INTENT

There are many misconceptions regarding the Caribbean and Puerto Rico. Despite media attention from Hurricane Maria (2017) and the ousting of governor Roselló (2019), many people still don’t know where Puerto Rico is or that its people are American citizens. So then, what is a Puerto Rican?

In this rich culture with a long history, there is no one single answer but many. This is the foundation this film’s vision: tell a different kind of thriller that goes into the psyche of this culture and leaves behind clichés. It’s important to show a side that people outside the island don’t knows is there: the African legacy, the musical richness, and the darkness that underlies a place that feels like summer all year long. We also wish to show the arts as they live there through music and dance like Bomba and plena.

Thematically, Niña Buena, Niña Mala explores concepts of good and evil through competition and violence in children. Many people cling to the idea that children are inherently innocent, but anyone that’s raised a child knows that kids can be as cruel and calculating as adults, if not more so. However, this project looks deeper into their motivations to make sense of them. Lila vandalizes but does so from a place of suffering as she struggles for her drunk father’s attention. Pelícano wants justice for her grandmother’s destroyed property, but anger and bad decisions on her part result in tragedy. This story plays with expectations of what is “good” and what is “bad,” challenges those ideas, and hopefully makes the audience think about the complexity of what we label as violent or evil. Who really is the “antagonist” in this film and can we empathize with her destructive choices? If we love our “protagonist,” are we also able to detest her at the end of the film? Through the genre of a dark thriller, we can truly push the boundaries to showcase these questions and ideas.

PHOTOS

These photos are meant to show aspects of life in Loiza, Puerto Rico, the setting of the story.