“A potent mix of Catholicism, mysticism and eroticism, La niña santa explores the sexual awakening of teenager Amalia—played by Maria Alché with inscrutable demeanor — who lives with her mother Helena in a hotel that has seen better days. During a medical convention, one of the participants, Doctor Jano, takes an interest in Helena, an attractive but lonely divorcée. When the doctor, unbeknown to Helena, sexually molests Amalia during a theremin concert, she reacts with shock and a hint of excitement. Taking her lessons in Catholicism literally, she makes it her calling to “save” the perpetrator. As divine vocation mixes with raging hormones, a triangle of devilish desire is formed. Even more so than her other films, La niña santa revolves around the perception of the senses—touching, feeling, smelling, and especially hearing — bringing out the haptic element of a cinema that radically questions the primacy of the visual and that insists on the multisensory embodiment of culture. The theremin, an instrument that is played by not touching it, and the music of which has been used in many classic US horror films, becomes the film’s loaded symbol for proper and improper touching, bringing together the illicit, the uncanny and the supernatural.” (Harvard Film Archive)