I always remember the confession that Aunt May left her daughter’s diary in the film: write this down so you can understand the relationship between events.
If a person lives to be 90 years old and starts over again, he or she is the wisest person in the world.
I haven’t read the original, but I’d like to try to do an analysis of thisrelationship myself.
Let’s start with the character Esteban. His mother is seriously ill, mentally negative, waiting for death day after day, living in such a family makes him just want to escape, to escape this ugly, nasty and unbearable life. His sister, on the other hand, bears the responsibility of taking care of his mother with patience and reluctance. In such an environment, Esteban developed a tough, conceited character, changing his fate only by himself, and happiness will come only when fate is truly in his own hands.
Clara’s life grew up in a peaceful and stable environment, free and happy. So she is carefree and naive. It was only the departure of her sister Rose that cast a shadow over her childhood, and she felt that her prophecy indirectly led to Rose’s death. Experiencing the fear of death, the grief of her parents, and spying on the cruel reality of dissecting a corpse, instead planted the seeds of peace, perseverance, optimism, love and spontaneity in Clara’s character. So, when facing death again, she can go with a big belly to find her mother’s lost head after the car accident, can tenderly say goodbye to Firullah’s cold body, can say to her granddaughter at the last moment of her life, “Tell grandpa not to be sad, I will come back to take him away.”
Esteban’s sister Firullah felt the most real to me. Because of her contradictions. On the one hand, she had to comply with the social concept of the time, her brother could leave, but as a woman, a sister, had to stay at home to take care of her mother; on the other hand, she was resigned to this, I WISH I WAS A MAN, she said so when she heard her brother was leaving. So at first, she is full of uneasiness, jealousy, and maybe even revenge when she sees the happy Clara.
But Clara was so sincere, happy, bright as an angel, embraced and kissed this strong woman who was never used to close physical contact, and for the first time Firulla felt love and tenderness. The best part is the confession scene with the priest, I watched without subtitles and did not understand every sentence, but I understood her struggle: she was so in love with her, and so jealous of her, she was hot with desire, but also because of Clara’s purity and beauty and hard to repress love.
I, too, like Esteban, always suspected Firullah of having a bad heart, but the truth is that when she was expelled at the end, her curses were limited to her brother, who had never treated her with anything but distrust, and she was still full of gratitude and love for Clara.
Esteban’s anger and hatred towards his sister is actually based on guilt and suspicion. The lucrative estate was earned by his own real daily hard work for 20 years, but would it be untrue that Clara’s love was so beautiful, came so suddenly and effortlessly? To know that once the love with Ross was so unfortunate. So this tough guy always has to get himself some right in life, he needs to fight against the realness.
Blanca inherited Clara’s rottenness and Esteban’s stubbornness, as well as the defiant spirit of both. She falls in love with Pedro, the son of a colonial farm worker full of wildness, and remains steadfast.
All the misfortune of this family in the end, in fact, I do not think it is misfortune, very natural and smooth advance.
Esteban’s youthful desires brought him misfortune as well as a turnaround. The first illegitimate son joins the armed forces, hunts Pedro and abuses Blanca; another lover, however, contacts a high official for him to save his abused daughter.
This is the relationship between events, the fruit before the cause of the seed.
Then, he is dying, put down the struggle, acrimony, risking his life to send Pedro to the Canadian consulate. Is it because he remembered Clara, who was waiting tenderly at the door when he lost the election, and his little granddaughter, who took his hand and said, “Grandpa, you should eat” when the house was empty? If Pedro is arrested and killed, then his daughter Blanca will be as lonely and painful as she was before when she lost her mother, her lover and her sister.
Finally, when Clara came to Esteban’s dying bed, he exclaimed “Oh, my angel”, and I remembered what Filula said to the priest: “She is like an angel”. This angel saved that unfortunate family, the unfortunate siblings, and it was out of love for Esteban that the angel spoke again, bringing comfort to the old couple who had almost lost their two daughters.
Then one by one they left, leaving their love, hate and desire to their living children, until finally, all the confrontations found their balance, and Blanca said “I used to hate, but now I don’t hate anymore”.
The story is as simple as that, cause and effect, relationship between events.
