Although she is recognized as one of the main feminine figures in the field of film direction, and as a fundamental voice in the feminist film discourse, history has kept the name of screenwriter and director Muriel Box at bay from the English and European canon. Nonetheless, the need for a revision of her filmography was one of the keys of the 66th edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival (SSIFF), which included a retrospective of the work of the British filmmaker and published the book Muriel Box, edited by the UPF professor Quim Casas and Ana Cristina Iriarte, with the participation of professors and researchers Núria Bou, Xavier Pérez and Carlos Losilla.

The book, edited by the SSIFF and the Filmoteca Española, travels through the different paths of Box’s biography and film oeuvre, delving into her facets as a director and a screenwriter, studying her immersion in genres such as comedy, melodrama and criminal cinema, and analysing the social and feminist perspective that emerged from her treatment of complex topics such as prostitution, adolescent sex and abortion. In this line, the book has an essay by Núria Bou and Xavier Pérez, “Women in melodrama: expressing a desire of one’s one”, and others by Carlos Losilla, “A film-maker out in the open”, and by Quim Casas, “A place at the top” and “Criminal Cinema”.

Box’s career (1905-1991), characterized by the aforementioned themes and concerns, went from 1945 to 1964, with the direction of 14 feature films, such as Simon and Laura (1955), The Passionate Stranger (1957), To Dorothy a Son (1954), Truth About Women (1957) and Rattle of a Simple Man (1964), and more than 20 screenwriting credits.

Published with the collaboration of the Filmoteca Vasca, the Generalitat Valenciana, the Institut Valencià de Cultura and the Lumière Festival, the work also includes pieces by Violeta Kovacsics, Ricardo Aldarondo, Eulàlia Iglesias, Rachel Cooke, Hannah McGill and Elisa McCausland.