THE HEIRESSES/ LAS HEREDERAS
Paraguay, 2018, 95 minutes, Colour.
Ana Brun, Margarita Irun, Ana Ivanova, Nilda Gonzalez, Maria Martins, Alicia Guerra.
Directed by Marcelo Martinessi.
It is not often that we see a film from Paraguay. This is a rather intense personal drama, focused on a woman in her 50s, aristocratic in her manner, having to face changes in her life when her longtime companion has been involved in fraud and many of the valuable possessions in the house have to be sold.
While we do not see many films from Paraguay, we do not see many films from Latin America with a lesbian theme. The relationship between Chela (Anna Brun) and Chiquita (Margarita Irun) is taken for granted, the background to the women’s lives, love and intimacy that they have shared for a long time.
However, Chiquita has to go to jail. Chela visits her there, finding the atmosphere of the jail rather distasteful. She is withdrawn, does some painting at home, looks through the door at various clients who come to examine cutlery, furniture that they intend to purchase. She has delegated the care for the clients to one of the maids.
Where is this portrait of Chela to go? One day a friend asks her to drive her to a meeting and then to do some other jobs with her car. An anxious woman accosts Chela asking her for a lift to get away from her violent companion. What emerges is an opening to the world for Chela, driving the mother of this woman to doctor’s appointments, becoming something of a taxi driver, even, though fearful, venturing onto a busy freeway. It is the first time that Chela has had to do any ordinary living and is rather exhilarated by the experience.
There is a testing of her sexual feelings when she continues to drive for the woman and is attracted towards her.
There is some delicacy in the portrait of the women, in the changes that Chela must face during her 50s and the consequences for her own life. Anna Brun, as Chela, won the Best Actress award at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival.
1. A film from Latin America, Latin American story, characters, situations?
2. The house and the interiors, the sale? The meetings for the women, parties? Prison? The taxi and the roads?
3. The women’s story, few men appearing in it? Women, relationships, love, lesbian themes?
4. Chela story, her age, depression, selling the house, relationship with Chiquita, her love for her, life with her and intimacy? Chiquita going to prison for fraud? Sales? The help of Carmela? The 50th birthday party, the songs? Chela and her painting, recluse, meal and service? Chela visiting the jail, the fearsome prisoners? Driving, her friends asking for lifts, the taxi service, payment and her experience of the work force, helping Angie, and his mother, going to the far town, learning to drive on the freeway? Experiencing freedom? The maid, the help in the house, with the clients? Sales? The meeting with Angie, going to the house, wanting intimacy, the effect? Chiquita coming home? The portrait of Chela?
5. Chiquita, her character, running the house, forceful, intimate, pushing Chela, the fraud situation, going to jail, getting out, returning home?
6. The maids, serving the house, providing information about the sales?
7. Carmela, friendship?
8. The clients, the explanation of the goods, cutlery, the glasses, the paintings, the table, whether the house was for sale?
9. Angie, her relationship with Cesar, clash with him, getting the ride with Chela, the idea of driving her mother for the operations? The growth of friendship, confiding stories, Angie and a new man? Chela waiting for Angie, buying the wine, going home, Angie searching the house, the promise of intimacy?
10. The effect on Chela, on the other women? The future?
