Costa Rican/Swedish director Nathalie Álvarez Mesén tweaks the coming-of-age genre in her feature film debut, Clara Sola.
Unlike in most such movies, Clara (played by Wendy Chinchilla Araya) is older, a 40-something-year-old woman from a small Costa Rican village. She’s different, mysteriously different.
Her mother (Flor María Vargas Chavez) has overly sheltered Clara because of her severely curved spine, but also because of Clara’s ability — thanks to a vision of the Virgin Mary — to heal others, though apparently not herself.
Clara’s monotonous, lonely life is thrown into turmoil when a young man, Santiago (Daniel Castañeda Rincón), arrives to take care of her horse. Santiago is quickly attracted to Clara’s 14-year-old niece Maria (Ana Julia Porras Espinoza), which fires Clara’s repressed sexuality.
Once lit, the flame drives the plot toward a Carrie-esque climax at Maria’s quinceañera.
Don’t misunderstand, Clara Sola isn’t a horror film. But it’s heavy in magical realism, so much so that you’re left wondering what really happened at the end. I don’t want to spoil anything and I don’t want to speculate, so I’ll just leave it at that.
Mesén packs a lot into this small-scale movie. With almost all the scenes focused on Clara, Araya ably conveys Clara’s innocence, awkwardness, and her connection to nature, from her white horse to a beetle to the soil and rain.
Our film club had numerous interpretations of events in the movie, and in particular the ending.
I know I razzed Avatar: The Way of Water a couple of weeks ago, but it’s a perfect target right now. Both Avatar films were rollercoasters to watch, visual marvels, especially in 3D. But once out of the theater, they didn’t linger in my mind. Clara Sola, on the other hand, is one of those movies that hooks your thoughts and leaves you wondering about it well after the end credits.