Director

Nathalie Álvarez Mesén

Sweden, Belgium, Costa Rica, Germany | 2021 | 106 min | Spanish

• Producer Nima Yousefi, Alan McConnell, Géraldine Sprimont, Karina Avellan Troz
• Production Company Hobab, Need Productions, Resolve Media, Pacífica Grey
• Screenplay Nathalie Álvarez Mesén, Maria Camila Arias
• Cinematography Sophie Winqvist
• Editing Marie-Hélène Dozo
• Sound Erick Vargas Williams, Valène Leroy, Charles De Ville
• Cast Wendy Chinchilla Araya, Daniel Castañeda Rincón, Ana Julia Porras Espinoza
• Contacts

  Luxbox festivals@luxboxfilms.com
  

About the Film

Clara Sola is a strong debut by Costa Rican-Swedish filmmaker Nathalie Álvarez Mesén. The film follows Clara, a 40-year-old virgin who´s believed to have a special connection to God. She lives with her deeply religious mother, Fresia, and her teenage niece, María, whose sexual awakening stirs Clara’s own desires. However, the figure she most identifies with is Yuca; the family’s white mare that is also thought to have certain special powers. The fates of Clara and Yuca mirror each other: their particularities are confused for magic and the supernatural. This fetishization, in turn, threatens their recognition as beings.

Clara, born with debilitating curvature in her spine, is wonderfully played by the dancer Wendy Chinchilla Araya. Oftentimes, indeed, her performance feels like choreography. The quality of Chinchilla Araya’s acting triumph is in the small details: the twitch of an eye, the flicker of a finger, a shifting smile. Every movement is calculated and measured, yet it’s always intuitive. Likewise, Sophie Winqvist Loggins’ cinematography skillfully captures Clara Sola’s interplay between magic and tragedy. Flitting between intrusiveness and voyeurism, Loggins forces an uncomfortable intimacy on the viewer with the film’s characters, making us confront the most interior dimensions of family life. This tension is manifested through the film’s magical realism. In this light, Clara Sola absolutely sits in that liminal space between tale and the all-too-real.

Ultimately, Clara Sola is a film of liberation; liberation from paternalism, from fetishization, and oppressive situations. Although at times it can be disturbing, Clara Sola is at other times uplifting. However, all in all, Clara Sola is the kind of film that will leave you with the fundamental question: how do we become truly free?

Nicole Guillemet