A remarkable first feature (and Costa Rica’s Oscar submission), Nathalie Álvarez Mesén spins a lush and dark tale of the internal rage of a woman kept confined.

Dancer Wendy Chinchilla Araya is mesmerising as 40-something Clara, a woman with a disability who is treated like a child (or perhaps a pet or livestock) by her superstitious and religious mother, Doṉa Fresia (Flor María Vargas Chavez), in a remote Costa Rican village. There is something special about Clara‘s connection with the natural world, from her affinity with white mare Yuca to her ability to breathe life and healing into creatures and humans alike.

Her mother sees it as a blessing from the Virgin Mary and rolls her out to perform miracles on call. No one seems to really understand her or her resistance to their wishes but we can see she is just a woman who wants choice and control in her life.

There is a sense of dread that pervades, accentuated by the brooding insect hum of the forest and the possibility of danger as Clara spies on her niece Maria and neighbour Santino. Clara’s special powers are presented as truth and it is only towards the end that the magical realism and possibility of metaphor becomes more clear.

There are no easy villains but the misogynistic application of religion, by women as personified by Clara’s awful mother, is clearly the context for Clara’s pain. As Doṉa Fresia gushes over Maria’s Quinceanera, we realise all that hasn’t been given to Clara, and I secretly wished for a painful comeuppance.

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