Saw In the Time of the Butterflies (thanks, Rafael!) It was a TV movie about life in the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of Trujillo. It follows a female freedom fighter who was instrumental in the resistance movement. The film is based on a true story, but fictionalized. It begins in a very grounded way, with a stiff-necked patriarch, nuns teaching the girls about original sin (and the ensuing periods) and boarding school. There are rumors of ethnic cleansing, of people being disappeared, but nothing seems real in the remote home of the protagonist. She gains the personal attention of Trujillo, however, and soon must negotiate tricky social tight-ropes.
The film has the role of women on its mind. The protagonist wants to be a lawyer but everyone she tells this to reacts with bemusement at the very idea of "skirts on the bench." She is under the thumb of her father, although she has a bit of leeway there. At one point, Trujillo dances with her, denying her request to be allowed to go to law school, he simultaneously grabs her ass. He is cruelly defining her role in society as a pretty face to be, at best, used and discarded, as actually happens to one of her 15-year-old boarding-school friends (the other girls are jealous. A nun mournfully closes a window.) Then again, when she becomes self-possessed and joins the resistance, she is always in the company of boyfriends. I understand that this is based on reality, but, well, must she always be following her man? for most of the movie, the protagonist is a solid bad-ass, so this is merely a quibble on my behalf.
The film, being made for TV, is a bit flat. The actors are almost always shot at ten-feet distance, from the knees up, as though this were a play. The script has a very docu-drama-ish feel, conveying facts more than emotions. The symbolism is a bit on-the-nose as well. The protagonist's first seditious act is to chase after her current boyfriend, down a row of corn-stalks which form a giant rabbit-hole. Later on, when she's gleefully mimeographing pamphlets, she has exchanged her usual sun-dress for a pair of khaki pants and a beret. The torture scenes (the film opens with her in prison, hair shorn. We know this won't end well) are TV-safe. They're fairly wince-inducing, but not exactly something you feel the need to look away from. Also, for all the beatings, there's never any rape shown (and I'm pretty sure there was probably a bit of rape in reality.) The film doesn't take risks that might alienate its audience and is therefore a bit tame and a bit safe.
That said, I've been told that this film is fairly accurate in its portrayal of life under Trujillo. There's an element of banality to the home-life which rings true. They live in fear, but they live. I gripe that the film is not melodramatic and punchy enough, but how much fun does a dictatorship need to be? The film's primary interest is in informing people about the protagonist's life (Minerva, her name is Minerva) and making her into a noble figure. I wish the film had cut more shapely, but its heart is clearly in the right place.
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