Coolly beautiful Inés Efron plays privileged 20 year old Lala, the daughter of a rich judge and a young woman with the world at her feet. Into her life comes the dark and simmering Guayi, the family’s similarly aged Paraguayan maid. Routinely abused by Lala’s father, Guayi conducts her love affair with Lala under the strictest of secrecy as the two methodically plan their escape to Paraguay.
Puenzo treats the lesbian love affair of the two women as secondary to their headlong rush to freedom. In fact they are escaping from the clinging vines of social dogma as much as from the cruel control of the moneyed upper class represented by Lala’s father the judge. La Guayi’s father Socrates is a mysterious, private man with secrets of his own. He tends the house that is falling down in ruin; the gate is covered with offerings to a deceased child, the fish child, who is seen now and then as in a dream. He is an actor, a stage performer living in a near-abandoned hovel seemingly outside of time. For him, time stopped when his daughter committed her terrible deed. No amount of offerings tied to the front gate can end his suffering.
Carlos Bardem, brother of Javier Bardem, plays hunky best friend Pulido who is instrumental is helping the two escape. Perhaps taking a page from his older brother's book Carlos plays a young tough with a heart of gold. He hangs out in the violent, dirty parts of town training attack dogs for his customers and driving the rattiest vehicle of a rattletrap van that can be imagined. Can the girls find help from someone like this? Do they dare trust someone of such tenuous circumstances with their very lives?
On the eve of their escape, the girl’s plan goes awry when Lala’s dad is found dead. From the audience point of view it doesn’t look like the girls committed the crime. Indeed, such a powerful man is very likely to have enemies in any country and there many prisoners’ friends and relatives sworn to revenge. But La Guayi is found with articles from the household, articles that could only have been stolen. As one of the under-class she is the immediate suspect. She will be easy to convict and represents a neat solution to a crime that if investigated too thoroughly will uncover deep seated corruption amongst the rich and powerful.
One night instead of simply delivering attack dogs to the grounds of the house of the local politico, Pulido drops Lala outside the house as well. Spying through the windows she sees the imprisoned women, her lover La Guayi included, entertaining the prison and law enforcement officials in the finely furnished house. This will be her last chance to redeem her forbidden love with an act of courage and self sacrifice. A mistake on her part now drops her into the caldron of sexual abuse that is the lot of the poor in the barrios of the world.
This film has great plot dynamics while presenting a valid commentary on South American politics and social inequality. Good acting and direction fill out the personalities of Lala, La Guayi, Pulido and Socrates. Good writing fills out those characters with mythical identities and the timeless qualities of guilt and redemption. The actor Socrates, played by Arnaldo Andre, is especially fascinating. Doleful and mysterious he tends his falling down residence as a combination hovel and church, nursing his past along to a slow and mournful end as his acting merges with his life. The camera follows the ins and outs of the barrios with fascinating accuracy as well as tracing the outlines of wealth and power in the suburbs where the prisoner girls are taken in the night to delight the ruling class.
The underwater shots are crucial to the film, showing the legendary fish child is his environment. We feel as foreign in his underwater world as do the rich in the barrios of those who form the core of the city. La Guayi leads us to explore all three places, the worlds of the rich and poor and the underworld of child spirits yet laid to rest in this fascinating thriller.
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