Portland observer., December 14, 2016, Page Page 4, Image 4

Page 4
December 14, 2016
A Refusal to Cave and a Right to Assert
o PinionAted
J udge
by
d arleen
o rtega
New film
depicts woman
in a fight for
her home
“Do you know when you feel
mad, but you actually know you
are not mad?”
Clara (the great Sonia Braga),
the 65-year-old protagonist of the
new Brazilian film, “Aquarius,”
poses this question, and knows
the feeling. Clara is locked in a
fight against greedy developers
who want to demolish the apart-
ment building where she has lived
comfortably for decades. She is
the last hold-out -- indeed, the
last resident -- in her otherwise
empty building, and apparently
the developers have succeeded
somehow in buying out the other
owners under some arrangement
where they will not be fully paid
until Clara follows suit. Now she
looks like the crazy one -- the
“mad” one -- for holding out --
and yet she is completely within
her rights to do so. And she is
more clear than angry.
The film is mostly a charac-
ter study -- of a rare female film
protagonist over 40 who is not
there as comic relief, or as some-
one’s mother or grandmother. So
many women’s stories don’t get
told; one can enjoy this one pure-
ly as an opportunity to sit with
how this woman engages with
the world from her particular
social location. She is educated,
Actress Sonia Braga fights greedy developers who want to demolition her apartment building in the new Brazilian film, “Aquarius.”
culturally aware, strong-minded,
and has loving relationships with
a host of friends of all ages, her
brother, her children, a long-time
employee, and a beloved nephew.
She is inquisitive, and capable of
a principled fight. She is a widow,
attractive, interested in sex, yet
impatient with the options avail-
able to her. Much of the film’s
pleasure is simply in sitting with
this particular woman’s experi-
ence.
Yet Clara’s story has some res-
onance beyond that. Her decision
to challenge a wealthy developer
under circumstances where she is
right but will likely lose her fight
offers some insights into how the
powerful react to challenge. Again
and again, Clara is patronized,
threatened, and disrespected, of-
ten with a veneer of courtesy. Her
education and social class puts
her in a privileged social loca-
tion, which potentially makes her
formidable -- and yet it is evident
that her insistence on standing her
ground defies expectations. How
often do people do that, partic-
ularly those who have access to
some privilege? Such people, par-
ticularly women, generally can be
relied on to notice how things are
supposed to go, and make that di-
rection seem legitimate and even
inevitable.
Clara is that unusual person
-- some would say that necessary
person -- who makes her deci-
sions based on what she actual-
ly wants and, technically, has a
right to assert. And this film is
also worth watching for a realis-
tic window into how that can play
out. First, she is promised that the
new building will bear the name
of the old one, an offer she evi-
dently finds insulting. Then the
developer resorts to more insid-
ious methods of destabilizing
Clara’s life and interfering with
her comfort in her home. Each of
the few times she makes a direct
response to the developer, she is
challenged for being disrespect-
ful. Every time. These challenges
feel increasingly absurd, given
the degree of disrespect that has
been shown to Clara (including
actual shit left in the hallways of
her building).
It’s worth noticing that Clara
never once calls on the authori-
ties. She knows better. She knows
where the power really is. Though
her refusal to cave worries and
exasperates her children (whom
the developer also approaches,
to her fury), Clara is not foolish,
or deluded. She understands what
is happening. She simply insists
on acting in a way that asserts
her own wishes, her own agency,
c ontinued on p age 13