Efe Madrid

Madrid

Updated Friday, January 26, 2024-09:16

Three women have claimed to have suffered "sexual violence" by the Spanish filmmaker

Carlos Vermut

, winner of the San Sebastián Golden Shell with

Magical Girl

(2014), according to an investigation published this Friday by

El País

.

The Madrid director and screenwriter responds: "I have always practiced rough sex in a consensual manner," according to that publication.

A film student, an employee of one of his productions and a worker in the cultural sector have denounced events

that occurred between May 2014 and February 2022

, in which the director allegedly took advantage of his recognition and position in the cinema to have violent sexual relations that they did not consent to.

One of the women describes that Vermut

"immobilized her, strangled her and forced her to have sex,

she remembers showing not only verbal but also physical opposition, and explains that she tried to get away with kicks," the newspaper indicates.

The second, an aspiring director, describes how the filmmaker lunged at her to kiss her and touch her breasts without her consent and how he tore off her bra.

The third, who worked for him and to whom he had promised, according to her version, a better job, describes an episode in which she

was locked in her house

after receiving "degrading treatment, both verbal and physical" for months, and a level of violence that did not consent to the sexual relations they had.

None of them reported what happened to the police for fear of losing their job or not being able to get one.

In statements to

El País,

the director has assured "not having been aware of having exercised sexual violence against any woman" and says he has

always practiced "hard sex in a consensual manner

."

"Another thing is that the person at home later felt bad and perhaps at the time was afraid to say it. I can't know that," he added.

Vermut, 43, released his debut film,

Diamond Flash

in 2011 and in 2014 he won the Golden Shell in San Sebastián and the award for best director for

Magical Girl

.

His latest work,

Manticore

, is an uncomfortable story about a pedophile man, tormented by his desires.