Muta : Monstrosity and Mutation

Starting from the short Muta, produced for the clothing brand Miu Miu within the project Women’s Tales, this chapter discusses Lucrecia Martel’s recurring flirtation with horror in her work, citing other films such as The Swamp, The Holy Girl, The Headless Woman, and Zama. The title Muta can refer to both muteness and transformation. In the film’s fabulous and enigmatic universe, a ship that floats across the waterways of Paraguay is occupied only by women – a group of young, slender models, who do not use verbal language to communicate, spew out cobwebs, and at night seem to morph into chrysalis. In interviews, Lucrecia Martel says she often thinks of building her fictional characters not as men, women, children, or any humanoid in general, but as ‘monsters’. This seems to be taken to the extreme in Muta. The filmmaker casts doubt on the existential status of the characters and exposes them more as strange creatures than as humans. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to discuss two central aspects in the short film: the ideas of metamorphosis and monstrosity. We also seek to observe the way the film dialogues with references such as Asian horror and the world of fashion, as well as navigate through some of its symbolism.