THE OPINION OF THE “WORLD” – TO SEE
While the 75 has just endede edition of the Cannes Film Festival, are releasing films that were presented there in July 2021 and which, we hope, will not go unnoticed in favor of those highlighted in recent days on the Croisette. As such, it would be a pity to miss Clara Sola, the first feature film by Swedish-Costa Rican director Nathalie Alvarez Mesen, selected for the Directors’ Fortnight, whose magnetism acts from the first minutes and spreads throughout the duration of the film. This is good, since there is a bit of a question of magic and bewitchment in this lost corner of Costa Rica where, for more than an hour and a half, a woman holds us in her power. Her name is Clara Sola (Wendy Chinchilla Araya).
Busy with nothing, except observing animals and nature, Clara lives with her mother Fresia, who takes care of her, and her niece Maria, a pretty little girl in her teenage years.
Animal face, gaze on the lookout, bushy hair, body leaning and mind a little elsewhere, the lady, about forties, presents herself from the start as a somewhat strange creature, childish despite marked features, fascinating in what it exudes elusiveness. Occupied with nothing, except observing animals and nature, Clara lives with her mother, Fresia (Flor Maria Vargas Chaves), who takes care of her, and her niece Maria, pretty of a girl in blooming adolescence (Ana Julia Porras Espinoza) whose presence radiates throughout the house. This one is dilapidated, made of odds and ends, but it is good to live there.
Around, few houses but abundant vegetation, and sometimes visitors. For the most part, the sick, the sick in search of healing. The reason for this being that the savage Clara has gifts. They have established, for a long time, her reputation as a benefactress. It is even said that his breath and his prayers to the Blessed Virgin overcame cancers. As soon as she is asked, the young woman relieves ailments, performs without enthusiasm or passion, but encouraged by her old mother, a fervent Catholic anxious to give others the grace that God has kindly granted to her daughter.
Body-to-body sensual
Clara, she doesn’t care, who prefers to talk to horses, revive insects, satisfy her body with the needs and desires it manifests. Feeling no shame, Clara does not bother herself with modesty, follows her instincts, gives in to what makes her feel good, gives herself pleasure. Especially in front of the soap opera that she watches every day on television, where sometimes a man and a woman kiss. So Clara can’t suppress the urge to caress herself, abandons herself to it, in full view of her niece. While as a good guardian of religious morality and patriarchal dogma, Fresia panics over this “vice” which she tries to prevent by forcing her daughter to dip her fingers in mashed peppers. In vain.
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