Older women do not miss the train: Female ageing and emancipation in the cinema of Ventura Pons

This article analyses the representation of female ageing in three films by Ventura Pons: Anita no perd el tren ( Anita Takes a Chance ) (2001), Any de Gràcia ( Year of Grace ) (2011) and Cola, Colita, Colassa (2015). Drawing on a critical perspective of ageism, it examines how these works challenge dominant narratives of ageing as a stage of decline, illness or marginalization. The three protagonists – Anita, Gràcia and Colita – embody modes of ageing that prioritize desire, autonomy, creativity and intergenerational or communal bonds. The analysis focuses on narrative and symbolic strategies that reframe age as a social and subjective construct, as well as on objects – such as clothing, domestic spaces and the body – that mediate these women’s relationships with the world. In Anita no perd el tren , desire emerges as a transformative force during a period of mourning; in Any de Gràcia , the cohabitation between an older woman and a young male university student subverts ageist logic and proposes new forms of mutual learning; and the documentary Cola, Colita, Colassa celebrates friendship, humour and memory as forms of resistance against the social invisibility of older women. Together, the three films offer a counter-narrative of age that challenges the neo-liberal model of productivity and presents an affirmative vision of old age as a fertile stage, worthy of cultural representation and vital agency.