EL NINO PEZ (THE FISH CHILD)
Argentina, 2009, 96 minutes, Colour.
Ines Efron, Mariela Vitale.
Directed by Lucia Puenzo.
Lucia Puenzo wrote and directed the interesting drama about gender and identity, XXY. She is again focusing on gender and identity but this time in the context of class, race and same sex love.
The structure of the film makes its concentration demands as it opens with one girl waking and being attended by her servant, followed by the discovery of a dead body – the girl's father. Then the film veers between present and past, between the girl making a bus trip to Paraguay to her servant's town and the past where the father was having an affair with the servant while the two girls were in love with each other.
The title refers to a mythic story about a child who could direct people to the bottom of a river or lake, somehow deriving from the legends of the region.
Ines Efron from XXY is the girl and Mariela Vitale is the servant.
While there is a great deal of emotion on screen, audience response will depend on how sympathetic it finds the two girls and that is not always easy.
1.An Argentinian story? Argentina in the present, society? The contrast with the descendants of the Indians of Paraguay? Myths?
2.Wealthy Buenos Aires, the homes, the countryside? The contrast with Paraguay and the villages? The open road? The lake? The musical score?
3.The title, the myth, the images and statues of the child, the explanation of the myth, the underwater sequences?
4.The structure: the introduction, the present and the past, interlocking?
5.The girl, her maid, the dog, the household? Discovering her dead father?
6.The focus on Lala, her journey, the bus, remembering, the insertion of the flashbacks? Her life? Her father? The maid, the dog? In love with the maid? Her father and his attitude, her brother and his drugs, the absent mother? Her return? The dreams? Her trip, the stealing, the necklace, the painting, the fences and their dealings, the money? The meals at home, the farewell to Nacho? Her seeing her father with the maid, her upset? The bell, father, the jealousies? Her leaving, going to the village, her search for her servant’s father? The discovery that the maid had been pregnant, the story of the fish child? Her going back to Buenos Aires, the discussions with her mother, the police and their investigations, her cutting her hair, the dog seller, the visit, the break-in, discovering the house with the prostitutes? The shooting? Going to visit the maid in jail, their discussions, the escape, the future?
7.The maid, her Guarani background, going into service young, working as a maid, with the family, the love affair, her dreams, the journey? The death? Her accepting the blame? Going to prison? Lala’s visit to the prison, her not wanting her to come back? The self-sacrifice, leaving, the final shootout, the future?
8.The father, his writing skills, his prestige, his children, the affair with the maid, his death?
9.The glimpse of the brother, his attitude towards his family, his father, drug-taking, rehabilitation, going to the farm?
10.The maid’s father, as an actor, the soap operas, his story, not seeking out his daughter? Her disappointment?
11.The other maid, her giving evidence, her fears?
12.The men, fencing the stolen goods, the painting, in the house, the shootout?
13.Issues of gender, identity, love and relationships? The future?
