Crip Relationality and Radical Care in Fernando Franco's La consagración de la primavera

Abstract

Abstract

Abstract: Fernando Franco's 2022 film La consagración de la primavera ( The Rite of Spring ) is the first Spanish mainstream film that portrays sexual assistance for people with disabilities. The movie focuses on the life of a college student, Laura (Valèria Sorolla), who assists a young man, David (Telmo Irureta), with cerebral palsy in masturbating. However, unlike previous representations of sexual assistance and crip politics in Spanish marginal productions, such as Yes, We Fuck! (Antonio Centeno and Raúl de la Morena, 2015) and Vivir y otras ficciones ( Living and Other Fictions ) (Jo Sol, 2016) La consagración de la primavera seems to reinscribe heteronormative conventions and turns its back on the radical possibilities of diverse relationalities. Laura stops seeing David and starts a relationship with her able-bodied, conventionally attractive classmate. In this article, I grapple with the ways in which the movie's final message could also be a radical proposal: a denunciation of an unjust society and a form of advocacy of diverse bodies and diverse pleasures. Fernando Franco said in an interview at San Sebastián Film Festival that he wanted to cast a "mirada más normalizadora" to counter "ciertos prejuicios." By adopting a coming-of-age romance framework, Franco manages to make publicly discussable topics that remain uncomfortable in Spain and to amplify the voices of disability activists, like actor Telmo Irureta. I ask what it means that a lighter storytelling register is required to render disabled sexuality discussable. In doing so, I study La consagración de la primavera not only in its aesthetic and narrative aspects, but also in its circulation in public forums, sparking conversations about disability justice, crip communities, and intersectionality.