Paulina

Distributed by First Run/Icarus Films, 32 Court St., 21st Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201; 800-876-1710Produced by CineMamas ProductionsDirected by Vicky Funari1997, VHS, color, 88 min. Weaving interviews with recreations of past events in the life of Paulina Crus Suarez, this autobiographical portrait is much like a life, full of lyrical memories as well as those retained in ways acceptable to those remembering. This woman's life has been made ordinary after escaping extraordinary circumstances. At 15, fleeing the sexual abuse she endured for several years at the hands of a cruel man, she escaped to Mexico city and began a new life as a maid and housekeeper. The recreations of Paulina's life in rural Mexico are based on her interviews and are shown most often with her voice-over narration as a continuation of the interview. We see her memories as she remembers them. We also see events of her childhood as her parents remember them and here the discrepancies are dealt with much like the approach taken in Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon. We know that an event took place but the circumstances differ with the various perspectives involved. Paulina claims that at the age of 8, a mishap in a fall during a bath with her sister left her bleeding profusely from her genitals and that her mother's reaction was a face saving one. Paulina's recollection is that her mother had a hysterical response maintaining to anyone who would listen that she was raped by Don Mauro, a local cacique, or town boss who had connections to local officials. Everyone in the village shunned or ostracized her and she gained a bad reputation. Her mother's memory or version of the events is also shown and she maintains that she herself was bathing Paulina and that she alone knew of her fall and injury. Paulina's father claims that he defended her from gossip but that she herself wanted to go away with Don Mauro, while Paulina adamantly asserts that her father traded her away for land rights and that she was abducted and installed in a house as one of Don Mauro's mistresses at 13. Much energy and time was put into the making of this portrait. The video interviews look as if they had been done over a period of several years with Paulina looking older in some interviews than in others. The recreations are a complete departure in that the lighting, and camera work changes to reflect an almost fictional world of memory. Finally the footage of her return to the village, as a middle-aged woman, to confront her family and find those who helped her is also unique in its immediacy. Interlacing elements of her current life with her past is much like the shot of her braiding her hair as a child, each strand intertwined with the other separate strands to create a strong braid. Highly recommended for academic areas related to Women's Studies, Film Studies, and Communication Studies.