imprisoned

1

Clara Sola (Costa Rica) – An Awakening from Conservative Christianity

Clara Sola

Clara Sola Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Clara Sola is one of two Latin American films from 2022 that had a memorably anti-colonialist ending. The other, Bantu Mama, features a French-African tourist turned fugitive in the Dominican Republic that escapes to sanctuary in Africa after feeling a connection to her African roots. Clara Sola follows Clara’s awakening as she frees herself from conservative Christianity to embrace the indigenous roots of her powers.

From: Costa Rica, North America
Watch: IMDb, JustWatch
Next: Alba, Thelma, Ixcanul

Clara Sola – The Breakdown

Clara is imprisoned by a purple flag marked boundary around the small house she lives in with her mother and niece in the remote Costa Rican countryside. She’s closely protected by her mother for her miraculous god-given powers, that were apparently bestowed to her by an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Her fame for healing routinely brings people from across the country to her house for her blessings, as well as much needed donations that seem to be the main source of income for the three of them. At the beginning, Clara is content to follow her mother’s lead, staying within the purple flagged boundary marked for her and taking part in the religious ceremonies she’s the main attraction of. However, the arrival of Santiago prompts a sexual awakening that reconnects her to the true nature of her powers.

Colors are present from the start in the purple flags flying on the poles marking Clara’s boundary. In the opening scene, she’s beckoning her white horse named Yuca, to come to her from the other side of the boundary line. The natural white color of Yuca signify freedom, whereas purple signifies Clara’s confinement. It’s notable that the only other time purple appears in the film is after Clara tries to dye her pink dress blue, to match the blue quincenera dress of her niece. She’s trying to break free from the conservative baby pink (and her babying mother) to experience the freedom of the attractive blue dress of her niece, but ends up stuck with the same purple that marks her restricted world. It’s a moment in which she realizes that no matter how much she tries to be like her niece, she’ll never be her. It sets in motion her wish to escape.

Colors also confuse Clara. She’s drawn to both artificial and natural colors, even though both aren’t leading her in the right direction. The artificial colors of her niece’s blue dress draw her to Santiago and a ‘normal life.’ She’s pictured in the dress in her happiest moments with Santiago. However, like the artificial lights illuminating her smile as she’s driven home by Santiago one night, the blue dress symbolizes an unsustainable happiness. She’s only truly free in the moments she’s with nature – with natural colors – whether that be the lights of the fire-flies, the white coat of Yuca, or the greens and blues of the trees and river. The nature accepts her and understands her. They allow her to be free unlike the family and community that imprison her physically and spiritually.

In breaking free from her family and community, Clara breaks free from the conservative Christianity that imprisoned her, the descendant of Spanish Colonialism. In returning to the forest, she’s returning to her indigenous roots.

What to Watch Next

For more Latin American coming of age films, try Alba and Aurora. The former follow a daughter living with her single dad trying to navigate the awkwardness of puberty and school. The latter follows a pregnant teenager that finds support in a teacher. You can also try Ixcanul, which follow an indigenous woman in Guatemala.

Or for a dark, magical coming of age story in the vein of Black Swan, try Joachim Trier’s Thelma.

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Nauru: The Forgotten Children – Refugees Imprisoned on Island

Nauru: The Forgotten Children

Nauru: The Forgotten CHildren Film Difficulty Ranking: 1

A made-for-Australian-TV documentary that covers Australia’s refugee crisis that it brought to Nauruan shores. The lack of an indigenous perspective makes Nauru: The Forgotten Children problematic.

From: Nauru, Australasia
Watch: YouTube
Next: Limbo, Sitting in Limbo, Between Fences

Nauru: The Forgotten Children Breakdown

Ultimately, this isn’t really a Nauruan film. It’s a made for TV documentary about the residents of the Nauru Regional Processing Facility, aka the offshore detention facility, that Australia uses on the island. The documentary itself is produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV network and the subjects of the documentary are either refugees from Asia or Australian charity workers. However, we’re using this TV documentary as a proxy as we couldn’t find any films of any length that were made by Nauruans. This could be because they’re not readily available to watch, or perhaps because they don’t exist yet (Nauru is one of the smallest countries in the world, hosting a population of just 12,000 people). Please let us know if you can share any films from Nauru.

Despite being set in Nauru, this documentary does not interview any Nauruans for the film. This is problematic as the documentary emphasizes their ‘violent nature’ without attempting to present their perspective. Instead it chooses to show us second-hand footage of violent fights between Nauruans as evidence to back up the comments on their violent nature made by the non-native refugees and Australian charity workers. Without an indigenous perspective, the documentary encourages us to accept a stereotype that Nauruans are violent and unwelcoming. The lack of a Nauruan perspective also dehumanizes the native people, placing the pseudo-colonizers (in this case the Australian charity workers) and the Asian refugees as more respectable than the natives that have been displaced by both through recent and current history. Perhaps, as this is an Australian documentary made by Australian national television, dehumanizing the Nauruans makes the Australian use of the island as a detention center more palatable.

Unfortunately, the lacking indigenous perspective detracts from what is otherwise an interesting documentary of the refugees detained on the island by the Australian government. It conveys Australia’s disregard for legitimate refugees and their neighbors (in throwing their problems onto other countries to avoid dealing with them), as well as the sad personal experiences of some of the refugees.

What to Watch Next

For more films showcasing how ‘the West’ poorly treats their refugees, check out:

  • Limbo (U.K.) where refugees are sent to remote Scotland instead of Nauru
  • Split at the Root (U.S.) where children are split from their parents when seeking asylum
  • Between Fences (Israel) where African refugees are detained in the Israeli desert

Plus, you don’t even have to be a refugee for the West to treat you badly. Sitting in Limbo dramatizes one man’s experience during the U.K.’s Windrush scandal.