Movie Review The Heiresses

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Spoiler alerts – 2018 The penultimate screening at this year’s Worldwise Learning Centre International Movie Festival in Preston. A slowburn Paraguayan drama, filmed in Spanish, dealing with a mature woman discovering herself the more she loses of her material trappings. Ana Brun, in an outstanding movie debut performance, plays Chela, one half of a lesbian relationship couple who have shared a wealthy apartment for thirty years. Now fallen on hard times they gradually have to sell off their famous paintings and furniture to make ends meet. Worse, Chiquta, the other woman in the relationship, has to go to prison for fraud, leaving Chela to cope alone. Chela, uncomfortable with driving, finds that her friends need transport to and from various places. There are news reports of unlicensed taxi drivers abducting, abusing and killing unwary passengers. Chela start out driving as a favour but soon starts earning from her car-services. She grows in confidence, humour and independence. She also gets close to a relationship with a younger more Bohemian woman, Angy. With Chiquita’s release, the new independent streak Chela is developing is compromised by a conflicting struggle to return to the way things were before. Lots goes on for a film with virtually no action. Brun’s performance is exceptional, and there is something creepy in the way the house is invaded by potential customers trying to bargain for everything held dear. There are virtually no men in the movie, with only brief glimpse of two of Angy’s partners, and a few extras, this is a study of a lonely middle-aged lady finding, and at risk of again losing, herself. Youtube Arthur Chappell