I don’t think there are enough words to emphasise the wonderful beauty of this film. Disheartening, melancholy and yet hopeful and heart warming. The film has many contrasts and many layers that make it a treat to watch.
Due to the failing health of her husband, the wife (played by Maria Gailana) has to move in to a nearby Urban town, away from the village she has lived most of her life, into an apartment with her distant daughter. This is evident from the off, as the shuffling mother trods along behind the ever hyper daughter, Maria (played by Ana Fernandez). The physical distance between the daughter and mother as they head to Maria’s apartment plays as a metaphor for the gap in their relationship. Maria treats her mother like a child, as a guest, not as her mother.
Living a rather poor life herself, Maria has to scrape and scrounge for money in order to eat. However, she seems to spend her money on smoking and drinking. Both of which she does not approach in modicum, rather the opposite. Her addiction to the alcohol, and her smoking habit seem to be covers for deeper, more seeded frustrations and sadness.
The husband/father to Maria and her mother is a stubborn, and brutal monster. His behaviour is both offensive and absurd, treating his wife like a leper and an idiot, and treating his daughter as if she doesn’t exist. This is a broken man, who’s health is deteriorating. We learn that this behaviour is not a last man’s privilege and bitching, but rather the tools with which he has used both as a father and as a husband. Even beating his wife, and treating his daughter like a dog, the wife accepts her existence with this man, as he is her husband, whatever he is. At the same time, she tries to make Maria understand that, for better or worse, he is still her father.
Solas ends fittingly well. It provides closure for everyone, hope and happiness. All the opposites of what the film begins with
Maria’s life being in tatters, reflects on the day to day behaviour towards her mother. Her own angst and fears being projected into the berating of her own mother. She is practicing what her father did to her as a child, and unaware, she repeats this towards her mother. After finding out she’s pregnant, things become worse for Maria. Already not on speaking terms with her mother, she decides to have an abortion. The man she’s with is much like a father, a complete arsehole. He treats Maria as a fuck, and in some regards that was the arrangement they always had. Things change for Maria later, as she realises that she wants to be a mother, that she wants to have the child.
It’s wonderful how the mother, alone and lonely in Maria’s apartment, changes the apartment in to something more habitable. She brings food, something Maria never has. She adds plants, puts in some used furniture, even opens the windows. This is important, because it reflects the changes that Maria is going through, and the changes that occur in the relationship between Maria and her mother. What was once a dark, morbid apartment becomes something brighter and more hopeful.
The mother has her own problems as well. She befriends one of the neighbours (played by Carlos Alvarez Novoa) when she suggest what he should buy for a stew. He in turn helps in paying her groceries in the local market, when she realises she doesn’t have enough money to cover everything. She repays the favour by paying him back, and making his dinner after he burns what he was originally making. This is how the friendship begins, and it further blossoms and grows stronger. There is an unrequited love, a bond that has been created between the neighbour and Maria’s mother. In another life, they would have been happy together. But in this life, with all the happiness and kindness he can offer, she chooses not to betray her husband.
Similarly, Maria chooses not betray her instincts, and is torn between wanting the child, and having the abortion. As she falls deeper in to depression, realising her mistakes, her behaviour towards her mother, she watches as her mother cleans the place up after she comes home drunk one evening and falls. Maria comes to an understand, and slowly, and delicately the bond and relationship between mother and daughter starts to mend bridge piece by bridge piece. It’s a gradual process, as they still have their spats, but you feel a new empathy towards Maria and a continued sympathy towards the mother, who in all of these instances has just tried to do the best she can, never raising her voice, never talking down to anyone, and taking all the crap from her husband and daughter with so much as a tear or word of anger.
The performances by everyone are absolutely stunning. The mother is played with pace and definition; the daughter is arrogant, stubborn and yet vulnerable and insecure; the neighbour has been smitten, and plays the role of a man hoping for a second chance at love after his wife’s death; and Maria’s father the ever present bastard, makes his presence well and truly known as he bullies the mother and ignores his daughter, while in a hospital bed.
The physical distance between the daughter and mother as they head to Maria’s apartment plays as a metaphor for the gap in their relationship
Zambrano ends the film with, “For my mother, for all mothers”, rather defining the focus and the message that all mothers are saints. Of course, there is the romantic idea that this is true, that all mothers are like angels looking after their children with responsibility and love. That the kids are spoilt, misunderstanding their mothers acts of support for acts of interference. Much of this is glorified and emphasised in the film, and whether or not you agree with the idea (I certainly don’t), you can’t help but be touched by the passion that has gone into this film, and the performances that gel this film in to something quite beautiful. I find it difficult to imagine that America could recreate or tell a tale with some innocence, such strength and power without looking like they’re acting. And that’s the difference, the actors in this don’t look as though they’re acting, they look like they’re living the lives of their characters. Unhappy, sad, lonely and all alone.
There may be some ironic twist in the title, and in the film, that we are alone by choice not by circumstance, or that when we feel we’re not alone, we are. There are many messages that could be deciphered from the film, and that I guess is one of the other beauties of this. Everyone is some sort of unhappiness, they all think they’re alone, but just when then they think it’s all over, along comes someone who changes their life, that adds hope and light into the corridor of darkness they have often followed. It is a film about hope, as much as it is mothers.
Solas ends fittingly well. It provides closure for everyone, hope and happiness. All the opposites of what the film begins with. It’s very well planned out, enjoyably directed, and incredibly touching at times. Watching the mother, alone in her room, unhappy that her daughter cannot stay in the same room as her, let alone look at her face. Yet how things change, and how things are mended are deftly handled with realism.
Verdict: Amazing performances and a depressingly beautiful story. A true pleasure to watch.