Pinito del Oro and Natalia Sosa's clandestine love affair comes to screen in Arima León's 'Tal vez'

A debut that captures a hidden romance

Arima León’s first feature, "Tal vez," released July 10, focuses on the bond between legendary trapeze artist Pinito del Oro and Canarian writer Natalia Sosa. León developed the script inspired by Sosa’s literary work, particularly the letters the two women exchanged over a decade starting in 1968, when Pinito, star of Madrid’s Circo Price, commissioned Sosa to write her memoirs.

We always worked from respect, our ultimate aim was to reclaim these forgotten figures but also women who suffered greatly, some more for their queer identity and others for their position as women in Francoist society.

Pinito del Oro: the angel of the trapece

Adriana Ugarte portrays Pinito del Oro, born María Cristina del Pino Segura Gómez, the youngest of 19 siblings and a world circus star. She suffered three skull fractures, multiple arm breaks, and spent eight days in a coma after one fall. She turned down Cecil B. DeMille’s offer to appear uncredited in "The Greatest Show on Earth" and later served as Gina Lollobrigida’s double in "Trapeze." Yet the film largely sidesteps the trapeze spectacle, using circus scenes only in fleeting, dreamlike flashes, to examine a different kind of balancing act – that of a lesbian woman in late-1960s Spain.

When I told my grandmother I was going to play Pinito she was moved. There was a genuine joy because they are two characters who gave their skin and their lives to art in a very naked and frank way, risking their lives. Conquering certain territories or achieving a place you want professionally is exhausting, that’s why I think from the trapece Pinito del Oro was more the owner of her own life than ever.

Natalia Sosa: poet of fire and frustration

Tania Santana plays Natalia Sosa Ayala, a writer whose poems are described as full of frustration, rage, and fire. Sosa’s verse "I was never destined to be someone" from "Muchacha sin nombre" opens the film. The real Sosa published a volume in 1996 that included the correspondence with Pinito, four years before her death in 2000. Pinito died in 2017 at 85. The film draws on that epistolary love and the social repression of the Franco era.

An epistolary passion across decades

The two women met when Pinito, then married with two children and about to retire, sought Sosa’s help. A profound connection developed, but fear of losing her career kept Pinito from fully embracing the relationship. Their bond survived only through letters that "burn with passion," as La Razón’s review notes. The film treats this correspondence as the core narrative, with León and the actors insisting on a non-exploitative lens. "I drank from absolutely masculinised films that reflect women’s bodies as objects," says León, who avoided that in sex scenes.

I like the film because it tries to be as faithful as possible to reality. It tells a story of people who love each other, and who cannot do so because of the context in which they live.

Canarian identity and the forgotten paradise

León set out to recover a different image of the Canary Islands, away from the institutional clichés of sun and beach. Sosa’s letters evoke the islands’ darker, introspective side. Tania Santana, born in the Canary Islands, said of her character: "Natalia is one of those roles you can only play once in a lifetime. She breaks all our preconceptions of how a lesbian writer and islander should be."

Natalia is one of those characters you are only going to play once in a lifetime. She breaks away from all the concepts we have in our heads of what a woman writer and lesbian, and islander, is like.

Reception and runtime

"Tal vez" runs 115 minutes and is rated three and a half stars by La Razón. The review praises both lead performances but notes some secondary characters lack depth. El País offers a more reserved assessment, calling the film "too stiff" and "impostingly intense," though acknowledging the remarkable source material. It opens across Spain on July 10.