You Are Not Alone Fighting the Wolf Pack (No estás sola: La lucha contra La Manada) is a Spanish documentary film released on Netflix on March 1, 2024. Produced by Lucernam Films, it is directed by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar. The film has a runtime of about 1 hour and 42 minutes.
The documentary features Iratxe Alvarez, Joseba Asiron, Angel Fernandez, Elena Sarate, Ana Fernandez, Asun Casarola, Victor Sarasa, Carlota Alvarez, Pablo de la Fuente, Enrique Conde, Angel Beortegui, Ana Requena, Izaskun Gartzaron, voice actors Natalia de Molina and Carolina Yuste.
You Are Not Alone Fighting the Wolf Pack provides further insight into the rape case that took place during the San Fermín festivities in Pamplona, Navarre, Spain, on July 7, 2016, where an 18-year-old woman was gang-raped. This incident garnered widespread public outrage and raised doubts about how rape is defined in the Spanish legal system.
You Are Not Alone Fighting the Wolf Pack Review
It is a riveting and incisive deconstruction of the sexual assault case suffered by a young woman in 2016 at Spain’s iconic “running of the bulls” (Sanfermines) by five men who call themselves ‘The Wolf Pack’. Whenever such cases come to the surface, society time and again highlights how much a woman’s agency is undermined. If a woman clearly protests against any violence against them, then their clothes, morals and values are blamed. And if a woman freezes in shock, just wanting to get out of the situation alive then she is called an equal participant, instead of a victim. Simply, in any case, they are blamed for any unfortunate incident perpetrated on them.
That’s also the case for the victim of La Manada (the pack) assault incident. An 18-year-old college student was visiting Pamplona’s San Fermín festival with a friend. What she thought was a friendly encounter with a stranger, turned out to be a nightmare that might haunt her whole life. While her friend was resting in the car, the college student was approached by a guy, while sitting on a bench. When she went to her car to sleep, the guy and his four friends accompanied her during the journey.
As she was bidding goodbye, the guy kissed her, which she didn’t protest, thinking they would part ways after just that. Instead, taking advantage of the situation, they pushed her into a doorway of a building and gang-raped her. While some committed the crime, others recorded it on their mobile phones and later abandoned her in the doorway and stole her phone. When the girl recollected herself and walked out on the street, sobbing. She was helped by the passerby couple, to report to the police.
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This is where the work of the police in finding the assailers, just based on presumed height, tattoos and mention of facial hair, in the myriads of festival-goers, is just commendable. They were – José Ángel Prenda, Jesús Escudero, Alfonso Jesús Cabezuelo, Antonio Manuel Guerrero and Ángel Boza. Once arrested, police found the videos the perpetrators shared of the assault in a WhatsApp group called ‘La Manada’ and even previous text messages where they seem to be already planning a gang rape with anyone, they could find. Not only that, the police also found another video involving an unconscious 21-year-old woman being fondled by the same guys in a car in Pozoblanco, Andalusia.
Despite the clear evidence and the victim’s testimony, what’s really bizarre is how unfazed these five guys seemed. Without a hint of guilt or fear, they state how the girl incited them to have sex with her and actively participated. The audacity to say that they don’t know why the girl reported it and she must be doing it because her pride was hurt (as they left her without taking her out for a drink etc) is just outrageous. They even have an explanation for filming as just a fantasy to have a pornographic film of their own. What’s even more angering is that people believed them, especially the media play by their defence lawyer polarised the situation completely.
Significantly highlighting how unacceptable behaviour is easily dismissed as ‘boys being boys’. In parallel, the film also sheds light on the 2008 murder of Nagore Laffage, which also happened during the San Fermín celebrations. Comparisons are drawn between the two, where Nagore, a 20-year-old nurse, met with 27-year-old doctor José Diego Yllanes and they went to Yllanes’s apartment. Yllanes forcefully and violently assaulted her, ultimately resulting in her death. He justified his actions by claiming that Nagore had declined to engage in sexual activity with him.
While the accused had pleaded guilty in Nagore’s case, yet the dead was judged, as her mother was asked by a journalist if her daughter was a flirt. Similarly, the media often undermined the victim’s claims by stalking her in real life and on social media, stating that she is living a normal life – thus not a ‘victim’. Adding on, the defence lawyers argued the woman’s attitude (being in a shocked/passive state) in the recorded clips was evidence she had consented and highlighted several seconds in which she appeared to participate.
What really made a difference in putting the five criminals behind bars was the public outrage and protests. Thousands of people have mobilized in defence of women’s rights, and strong social activism in Spain against any attempt to blame the victims in such assaults. Initially, the court sentenced the five accused to nine years in prison for continued sexual abuse (non-violent in nature), although they did not find them guilty of sexual assault (violent act) (which would have meant 12 to 15 years of prison).
Ultimately, the verdict was challenged in the Supreme Court and on 21 June 2019, Court overturned the lower court’s decision, convicting the men of rape and sentencing them to 15 years in prison. The incident and ensuing public outcry resulted in the implementation of the “only yes is yes” (ley del solo sí es sí) law in Spain.
This legislation broadened the country’s definition of sexual assault to encompass any sexual activity lacking consent and mandated a 15-year prison term for aggravated rape. Another facet that runs in the background of the whole case is the #MeToo movement in the US which potentially helped bring women and the general public together in fighting the faultlines of sexism in the judiciary, the media, and society itself.
What makes this documentary stand apart from others is how delicately they have handled the subject. They used creative ideas to show portray their message, without even having the victim on camera. It was a good decision to use a voice actor to narrate the real feelings and statements of the victim, without jeopardising the identity. Oftentimes, the documentaries are hypocritical as they profess against victim-blaming yet do the same to sensationalise the content. Whereas, in You Are Not Alone Fighting the Wolf Pack, what really matters is the guilty party and one should only remember their criminal faces.
You Are Not Alone Fighting the Wolf Pack is available to stream on Netflix.
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