Review by
Benjamin Poole
Directed by: Nathalie Alvarez Mesen
Starring: Wendy Chinchilla Araya, Ana Julia Porras Espinoza, Daniel Castañeda Rincón, Flor María Vargas Chavez, Laura Román
Arguedas
We first meet the eponymous heroine of Nathalie Álvarez Mesén’s
(co-written by Maria Camila Arias) debut
Clara Sola attempting to coax along a handsome white steed
by the name of Yuca. Clara (Wendy Chinchilla Araya) uses her hands
to attract the horse, who shyly, eventually acquiesces to her beckoning.
The opening sequence is instructive: throughout the film, Clara’s hands
are a leitmotif, used in loving close up for a variety of purposes.
Chiefly, in the remote Costa Rican village where she lives with her
family, the middle-aged Clara is regarded as a soothsayer whose touch can
heal others. Clara is also tactile; she plunges her hands into the mud of
the surrounding forests to feel its fecund loam, she strokes her beloved
horse and gently plays with various insects. And, most pertinently, Clara
uses her hands on her own body, plunging them into her knickers to stroke
and play with herself (not so gently, though). To quote that old Woody
Allen line, don’t knock masturbation...
Except Clara’s mum isn’t so accepting as the disgraced octogenarian
filmmaker. She chastises Clara for her habits, to the extent of pasting
chilli oil on her fingers to curb her onanistic enthusiasm. She also
refuses the doctor’s recommendation of an operation to cure the worsening
curvature of the spine which Clara is suffering, citing some spurious
nonsense about it not being God’s will. Thing is, if Clara does get the
medical operation then what would that do to the Sola brand? Mum touts her
daughter as a proto-saint due to her apparently witnessing the Virgin Mary
as a girl, and people journey from miles around to now witness Clara,
happily paying for the privilege. Furthermore, if Clara did receive
surgery then perhaps that would mean independence for her, which wouldn’t
suit mum either. She has kept her daughter in a state of arrested
development, resulting in Clara being something of a woman-child. Her
commandeered lifestyle is neatly symbolised when we witness her forced
into a corset by her mother and other family members - she is restricted,
both physically and spiritually.
However, something begins stirring in Clara. The two women share a house
with Maria (Ana Julia Porras Espinoza), Clara’s 15-year-old niece.
In the full flush of puberty, Maria is a riot of hormones, and has a
sort-of relationship with the handsome ostler (Santiago -
Daniel Castañeda Rincón) who hires out Yuca to tourists. As Maria
and Santiago steal kisses (and sometimes even more - eek!), Clara sneaks
peaks with erotic wonder. Sex, the promise of it and the freedom it
entails, is in the air. Turns out that Santiago is a bit of a player, and
soon he’s sniffing around Clara, too (can we blame him? Throughout the
film, Araya’s astonishing beauty sneaks up on us, until we are utterly
under its spell). He’s the sort of creep that tells women how much
prettier they look without make-up, etc, but maybe his attention could be
the final tip towards the emancipation, both sexually and socially, which
Clara needs...
Araya’s background is as a dancer, which is perhaps why we are magnetised
by her every movement and each expression which passes her infinitely
fascinating face: she rules the screen with her presence. DoP
Sophie Winqvist’s poetic camera pores over the actor as the plot
takes interesting and surprising turns. Just like Clara’s relationship
with the world around her - palliative, uplifting - Mesén’s work with the
actor is pure alchemy, creating a narrative which engages and invigorates.
In the same way that Maria’s vivication relates to Clara’s re-awakening,
we too are invited to consider the energies which govern our lives, our
urges and the need to make sense of them. Clara Sola uses
the fertile hinterland of its rural setting, and the raw performances of
its untrained actors, to create a film of pure pagan power. Imperative to
her self-actualisation, despite the magic which Clara may or may not be
able to enact on her peers and the unknowable forces which facilitate the
natural world, is the vital thaumaturgy which Clara performs upon herself.
A rich, exciting and original film: in Clara Sola, wanking has never seemed so urgently and gorgeously liberating.
Clara Sola is in UK cinemas and on VOD from
November 18th.
