The Spanish Kiss

In August 2023, Luis Rubiales, president of the Spanish Football Federation, kissed Jenni Hermoso on the lips without consent during the Women's Football World Cup victory celebrations. The moment lasted seconds. The fallout lasted months.

What followed was a cascade of protests, social media outrage, and mounting institutional pressure that ultimately forced Rubiales to resign from a position worth 750,000 euros a year. He refused until he could no longer refuse.

But the story did not end with his departure. Madrid-based journalist Cristina Fallaras put a simple question to her social media followers: had other women experienced sexual harassment? Thousands responded. The responses revealed something far darker than a single incident at a trophy ceremony. Sexual harassment, it emerged, is a daily reality for enormous numbers of Spanish women, and in roughly half of the cases Fallaras received, the experiences dated to childhood.

Directed by Pertti Pesonen and produced by Yle, The Spanish Kiss traces how one uninvited kiss exposed a much deeper wound in Spanish society. Researcher Irene Zugasti anchors the documentary's broader inquiry into how Spaniards are rethinking the boundaries of sexual violence.

A precise, sobering film that moves from a stadium podium to a national reckoning.