"Clara Sola" - Film Review
Clara Sola is a thought-provoking, magically realistic tale about the multitude of ways religion can act as a constraint in the development of an individual. There are boundaries, both visible and invisible, in Clara’s (Wendy Chinchilla Araya) life. She lives with her mother (Flor María Vargas Chavez) and niece (Ana Julia Porras Espinoza) in a secluded, extremely religious Costa Rican town.
For most of the film, Clara is cast aside, a burden to her family. That is, until she needs to perform a miracle. The Virgin Mary visits Clara and gives her a special awareness of the world. She can understand animals, sense changes in the weather, and heal people’s ailments. This connectivity mirrors the film’s themes of environmentalism. Humanity uses the earth in the same way. A burden until it’s beneficial. Companies chop down rainforests in pursuit of record profits. The claustrophobic treatment of Clara by her family is no different. She is nothing but a miracle meant to be called upon for someone else’s gain. Never her own.
Clara’s journey is one of freedom in her own body. From the beginning, it’s clear that Clara doesn’t feel at home within herself. Others, however, feel more than comfortable touching, prodding, and changing Clara’s body to meet their standards. Her mother is against Clara getting surgery for her back pain because she doesn’t want Clara’s body operated on. The entire time Clara and her mother are in the doctor’s office, it is her mother or Clara’s niece answering questions about Clara’s body.
Oscilloscope Laboratories
Despite Clara’s discomfort in her own skin, the camera lingers over various parts of her body. It takes note of the curve of her ear, the wrinkle in the bend of her finger, and the uptick of her lips in a smile. The film revels in Clara’s sense of self long before Clara herself discovers her own desires. As much as the film is about bodily autonomy, it’s also about pleasure. Not strictly in a sexual way, but the pleasure of having the freedom to choose. The pleasure of having your voice not only heard, but respected. It’s one of many pleasures Clara hasn’t experienced.
Clara Sola is a slow burn, a long-awaited coming-of-rage story that would feel at home in a double feature with Carrie. There’s one moment as large as the buckets of blood toppling over at Carrie’s prom, but this film is filled with many quiet moments of defiance for Clara. Moments where she chooses how she dresses, what she does, and who touches her. These moments are grander than they sound because of how little freedom Clara has when the film begins.
There is perhaps no better casting choice for Clara than Araya, given her dance background. Her immense control over her body is essential for the scenes where she contorts and twists, attempting to feel at home in her skin. Araya has a deft control of her limbs that can only come from years of dance training. Her performance is essential to the potency of Clara’s story.
Clara Sola shows what happens when enough finally becomes enough. A breaking point decades in the making over something that never should have been taken from Clara in the first place: her autonomy.
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