Alas de mariposa

The Basque film director, Juanma Bajo Ulloa, is a difficult person to come to terms with. Doubly so, as I have had the bad luck of seeing his films in reverse order. After a hilarious but rather senseless `Airbag' (qv), I was greatly attracted by the sombre, almost poetic `La Madre Muerta' (qv), and finally have managed to see `Alas de Mariposa', mostly because my attention fell on Silvia Munt as lead actress. The fact that Fernando Valverde is playing opposite her, also helped. What I did not expect is that both girls playing the younger Amy (Laura Vaquero) and the adolescent Amy (Susana García), would steal the show from them. With intelligent patience, especially with Laura Vaquero, Bajo Ulloa achieves some memorable scenes.

Greatly aided by some extremely delicate photography playing with natural light so as to achieve a `claro-oscuro' result which is almost as if it were filmed in black and white. Bingen Mendizábal's dark music lends itself appropriately to the film's development, being almost textural in its sombreness.

For the story is grim: a harsh tragedy, at times verging on brutal pathos.

Footnotes:

1) For Spanish learners this film should not be too difficult as the dialogues are fairly easy to follow as the accents are neutral, though there are some softly-spoken parts at times.

2) In no way should under 18s be allowed to watch this film. I hate to be a censor, but the content of this film makes such a statement rather obligatory. If it were simply a case of explicit sex-scenes – there aren't any – I would say nothing.

I am with some other reviews who say in this movie there are two different part. The first, when she was a little kid, and the second, she as a teen. The first half, the star as a kid is awesome, nothing more, nothing less. Perfect length too. The aesthetic, blue tone, somber tale and perfect cast in this disturbing and sad story combine to produce one of the Spanish cinema peaks in the 90's. The other half, it's not bad as many people said, but with any trace of doubt the quality drops a lot. Annoying new characters, the loss of the atmosphere because the movie escapes to reality from that isolated world tale from the first half. Movie changed. Great technical work, good music and casting (specially the two girls who has disappeared from the scene inexplicably).

Alas de Mariposa is a tragic film that deals with the hardships of a little girl, Amanda, and the struggle to identify and relate to her parents. After a terrible tragedy, Amanda must cope with the consequences and piece together her life in order to survive the rejection of her mother and grandfather, and hold on to the weak connection to her father.

Alas de Mariposa is about a 6-year-old girl, Ami that lives in a home full of nightmares. Her mother, Carmen, has an obsession to give birth to a male. She wants to carry on the patriarchal name of her husband, Gabriel. For that reason, Carmen does not treat Ami with the love and respect that she needs and deserves. She often ignores Ami and tells her to leave her alone. Ami's father, Gabriel, is a hardworking garbage man that tries to keep the family together. He often tries to comfort Ami, since her mother will not. Ami's butterfly drawings as a child, turn into dark, skeletal remains of a butterfly as she grows older. Gabriel finally get fed up with all of the arguing and tension in the home and asks Ami to leave the house. This movie is full of terror for Ami--involving murder,hatred,and rape. You will notice the rejection of a female in this film and how Ami is victimized by the society's ideologies. Juanma uses several strategies to create this "dark and tragic" environment.

An excellent film by Basque director Juanma Bajo Ulloa. It is a film in which he presents the reality of the Basque Country as the `unwanted child' within a family. The daughter, Ami represents the Basque Country in the movie, the father represents France, and the mother represents Spain. The film also brings the audience to the discovery that the explosion of violence on the part of Ami is no more than an answer to the lack of love that she has from her parents. The father wants to be affectionate, but he just gives her the trinkets that he finds in the street, while the mother just rejects her because she has another son whom she prefers. The rejection of Ami's family also can be seen when Ami needs them and she called them requesting aid, but in first instance her mother does not put care to her call, and in another one, his father did not run enough to be able to help her.