Dolores Fonzi On Tackling The Battle Of Women’s Reproductive Rights In ‘Belén’ & Inspiring Change
Dolores Fonzi’s Belén, based on the book Somos Belén by Ana Correa, is a true story that follows the contentious case of a young Argentinian woman (Camila Plaate) who is admitted to a hospital with severe abdominal pain, unaware that she is pregnant, the woman succumbs to blood loss and wakes up handcuffed to a gurney while surrounded by police. She is then accused of having an intentional abortion. After being placed in detention for two years, she is then sentenced to eight years in prison after the court rules the incident as an aggravated homicide. The injustice ruling sparks an outcry from women throughout the country, and a female lawyer, Soledad Deza (Fonzi), takes on the young woman’s case and fights for her freedom with the support of thousands of women and organizations. Belén is the submission for Argentina’s entry for the Best International Feature at the 98th annual Academy Awards.
Below, Fonzi speaks with Deadline about all the hard work and challenges of bringing a female empowerment story to life.
DEADLINE: This story was brought to you initially, which makes sense to me given your activism, but I’m wondering what spoke to you about taking on a project like this. And how did you rework it to make the story you wanted to tell?
DOLORES FONZI: I got the project in the beginning of 2024, and then I rewrote it in about three months. Then I did a TV show in Chile for Amazon [The House of the Spirits], and when I came back I shot the movie and then while in the editing stage I did another TV show for Pablo Larraín [My Sad Dead] also in Chile, and came back and then it was time to travel with the movie and now here we are. All of this was in about a year and three months – so quick. But I felt it very personally because I was familiar with Belén’s case in 2016; she was in prison, and I really wanted to help.
So, I had an opportunity, and I went to the [Tucumán, Argentina protests] with a sign that said, “Freedom for Belén.” That changed the international press’s perspective. This drew international attention to the case, and the pressure also helped those dealing with it. Ana Elena Correa wrote a book that came out in 2019, and I read a chapter for a presentation along with some other actresses who were also talking about the case in the press. At this event, there was a producer who bought the rights to develop the project, and she offered for me to do the rewriting, directing and the acting. I had shot my first movie, Blondi, in 2022, so I felt that I could handle this. This was so personal to me, and I was so thankful to be given the opportunity to tell this woman’s story.
DEADLINE: Belén is an anonymous person. How did you go about getting that story through the eyes of her attorney, Soledad, whom you play in the movie?
FONZI: We knew that we were telling a story about the things that happen to women [in their private areas]. Everything that happens [in your private areas] most women are ashamed or afraid to talk about – and that’s not fair. If you have a thing that happens to your body and suddenly, you’re in jail because of an obstetric emergency, that’s insane. Belén didn’t want to be singled out, so I couldn’t put the focus on her in the movie because I couldn’t talk about her family, what they did to help her, or how they felt. It wasn’t part of the story that I could use for the movie because she didn’t want to be [involved].
I understood her completely because she wanted to protect her anonymity. So, we put the focus on Soledad. There are a lot of Beléns all over the world, but not too many Soledad Dezas, so highlighting her character was inspiring for lawyers and perhaps young people who watched the movie and said, “Oh, I want to be a lawyer.” This might also help people who might know someone in a similar position to Belén. Thinking about how a person who’s watched this story could change the life of someone else, like Soledad changed a society, and then the country was inspiring for me to tell the story that way. It’s a story of injustice and how anyone can bring attention to it.
DEADLINE: I love this scene in the film where Soledad is on a talk show with her journalist friend, and there’s a special guest who is an anti-abortion activist present, and they start fighting about this terrible analogy he makes about women breeding like dogs. Talk a bit about this, as that scene leads to the women rallying in the film.
FONZI: In 2016, I got the news about Belén being thrown in prison. Then we did a lot of activism in 2018 to get the abortion law passed in Argentina. I organized a group of 500 actresses, and the more high-profile ones went on TV to discuss with everyone the situation about women’s healthcare in the country. We talked with men who were saying [ridiculous things about our bodies.] So, that scene was a recreation of myself going on a TV show. Soledad Deza also went on TV, of course, but I combined the experience. In the movie, I wanted to explain everything that happened after Belén was released, all the way to the passage of the abortion law in 2020. But during that time period, I wanted to highlight the absurd conversations that were being had about why abortions aren’t a good thing to have. The story of the dogs is that the host of the TV show was comparing women to dogs who would carry their pregnancy to term and then give their puppies up for adoption or kill them. This was a comparison told by a senator here. It was very much a reality is worse than fiction moment. This scene was also important because it marked the beginning of Soledad’s internalization of the pressure she will feel continuously after taking on this case.
DEADLINE: Was there any fear in covering this topic for you? Since the passing of the abortion ban, have you seen much change?
FONZI: The government hasn’t changed at all. They’re still killing the culture in our country, like in cinema, theater and literature. Everything has gone down, all the resources that we’ve had. So, there wasn’t fear that I felt in the process. But I think for my producer, Leticia Cristi, yes, because she was thinking in those terms. The film committee in Argentina chose our movie for representation. Cinema and culture are like a memory of the society we live in. They are portraits of what we are, and that’s why it’s very important to remember and do these kinds of movies because we have to remember who we are. We have to inspire people to remember the power we had in that moment when we were all together doing this collective work that worked out. So, for me, it’s like, remember that if we could do it in that moment, we can do it now, and not only in Argentina, but in any society. If you work together in a common direction, you can change things. A lot of things are so important to me nowadays because of the danger we are living in.
[This interview has been edited for length and clarity]
