Carelessly skating through historical fiction tropes and atmospheric horror, Coven of Sisters is a chilling Spanish folklore with a horrifying essence.

Starting off with an absent sense of direction, Akelarre’s narrative was rather generic and formulaic. But the film quickly picked itself up and offered us an enthrallingly bewitching narrative and an underlying, yet ever-increasing, intensity. Once COVEN OF SISTERS relished in its diabolic momentum, there was no way back. Its narrative was rich with explicit and honest metaphors regarding religious atrocities and the power of make-believe.

Coven of Sisters’ storyline, as simple as it may seem, when combined with its gentle yet captivating score and its ever-dark color palette, established a fascinating ambiance of darkness and creativity. The power of Akelarre is that although some of its aspects were fictional and not real, the way they were presented was extremely persuasive and easily compelling.

Akelarre’s best attribute is its well-studied combination of exquisite and intimate cinematography and a profound and haunting character study. This mixture of raw, somehow adjacent, camera movements and the vulnerability of the film’s characters was the highlight of this Spanish witch hunt.

Amaia Aberasturi, Coven of Sisters’ lead star is a force to be reckoned with. The way she managed to alarmingly portray her character was simply exuding authenticity and conclusiveness. Her body language and delicate facial expressions transcribed an epic story of feminism and liberation through the ages. Àlex Brendemühl’s presence alongside Aberasturi was also an added value.

Coven of Sisters is a slow-paced, gradually growing character study analysis with a perplexing, yet utterly satisfactory, conclusion.