Sol Carballo in Memories of a Burning Body
Winner of the Panorama Audience Award at the 2024 Berlinale, ‘Memories of a Burning Body’ explores a profoundly feminine viewpoint of sex, particularly from women who have grown older and she questions whether they have managed to rise above the repression. Furniss points out that in some Latin American societies, particularly back in the 1960s, it was expected that: -
“a woman does not have her own desires but [must] be a submissive woman. Though the situation may be changing for the young women, the older women (after 65) have no such options; they must suppress their desires, can’t have boyfriends, you have to stay quietly in the background.” (in interview with Prachi Bari)
In this, her second feature after the multiple award-winning HORMIGAS (2019)- (that also touches on familial themes), Furniss has created a tapestry carefully woven from the experiences of three women, 68-year-old Ana, 69-year-old Patricia and 71-year-old Mayela.
Paulina Bernini Viquez
Here, their three lives are embodied into one protagonist, a charismatic and wise woman, played to perfection by Sol Carballo. Spanning generations, various actors of different ages and times interact on different layers, as if in parallel, reflecting the reality of the conversations and experiences emotionally echoed in the soundtrack.
Furniss worked on the idea for many years, studying ways to understand adult sexuality and how it was experienced in the repressive times of her own grandmother. In those times, anything related to the subject of sex was considered taboo, “a black hole ‘, and still is. So Furniss decided to make a film about the era when her grandmother lived: “This film is the conversation I never had with my grandmother.”
This grandmother was formidable. She bore no fewer than 11 children! The last one born when she thought she was already well into her menopause. In an interview with Prachi Baru, Furniss expresses her frustration: “But I couldn’t talk to her, as she was dead. It was this idealization of love that made me wonder what it was like for them growing up and how did they enjoy their sexuality.”
Juliana Filloy Brogantes as the girl
It is very hard to translate film titles: ‘Memorias de un Cuerpo que Arde’, could also be translated as ‘Memories of a Body that Burns with Desire’. Ardour has no verb in English, hence desire. It illustrates the underlying theme of this film.
It is about women’s experiences in a patriarchal society. Experiences that could only apply to women, never to a man. Hence this film remains an intensely feminine or feminist film which works at a universal level. So much so, that many of the viewers have responded very emotionally. One reviewer noticed people crying in the audience. There is an astonishing power in the intimacy of this production that resonates with everyone. In the end, we all cry for those women who could never speak out, acutely aware, as we are, of the millions all over the world that remain repressed, even now in the 21st century. when you’d think we might have moved on.
Initially, the film comes across as a documentary, but in reality, it’s a very carefully constructed fiction that explores the female experience from an early age. The candour and honesty of the conversations is disarming. These are women who have found the courage to talk about their fears, hopes and experiences as they discover that they are finally believed.
There are very few records of older persons talking openly about their sexuality, let alone in a Latin American context, so it is significant that, in this film, Furnis points out how female desire was considered wrong, a sin. Most likely because it implies empowerment and independence of thought and emotion, thus posing a threat to male patriarchy.
One of the most chilling moments is the scene where a mother gets brutally attacked by her husband as she tries to protect her baby from his uncontrolled fury. Recovering in hospital, covered in injuries and bruises, it is her father who rejects all talk of divorce and tells her she must go back to him, for she should: –
“Bear it, because it is your cross.”
These are themes that we have seen many times over, and sadly, women’s refuges all over the world are a testament to some of the more violent expressions against women. But Furniss has found a way, if a little overlong, to express it in an original way, with charm and spontaneity. The protagonist is like a spectator of the stories that are passing her by, layer by layer: the family that once protected the child, the controlling nuns at school, and the younger versions of the character, as an abused child (Juliana Filloy Bogantes), then an abused wife and mother (Paulina Bernini).
Antonella Sudasissi Furniss
The set design and props in Sol Carballo’s apartment merit a mention for the Production Designer (Amparo Baeza) for the way in which they become like a character on screen, building up the back story, with photographs and meticulous observations into the feel and style of life at that time. Surrealistically, at one point, a lone chicken wanders about the flat. Is it a figment of her imagination? After all, Carballo talked about growing up in the countryside without electricity or running water, surrounded by 300 chickens and 600 pigs!
The film starts with innocence, travels through domestic violence and harsh realities, to arrive at the moment when Carballo admits she has never been happier. Despite having giggled at older sex being something like: - “putting a marshmallow into a piggy bank,” she now revels in adventurous sex with her equally aged lover, enjoying her freedom, independence, and love, with a renewed interest in sex and orgasms.
“We meet on Wednesdays, hang out and listen to music… marriage kills a relationship. They start snoring… but with a lover it is completely different. We don’t want to be each other’s nurse! [Now] I have butterflies in my tummy… it is the best time of my life… I am where I want to be.”
This is more than mere survival; it is an opening up to life as it should be. It is a ray of hope in these dark times and reminds us of how, in the soundtrack, one of the women calls out about her own desires: -
“A fireman, I need a fireman!”
But this is a fire that will never be put out, for these women “rose from the ashes like a phoenix.”
MEMORIES OF A BURNING BODY (2024)
TO BE RELEASED IN THE UK IN MID-NOVEMBER
Writer/Director Antonella Sudasissi Furniss /Producer Antonella Sudasissi Furniss / DOP: Andrés Campos Sánchez/ Production Design: Amparo Baeza Infante / Editing; Bernat Aragonés / Music; Juano Damiani / Original song; Valeria Castro/ Sound Designer: Nahuel Palenque /Direct sounds: Sérgio Guttiérrez /
Cast: Older woman: Sol Carballo / Younger woman: Paulina Bernini Viquez / The girl: Juliana Filloy Bogantes/ Mother: Liliana Biamonte / Father: Gabriel Araya Herrera/ Husband: Juan Luis Araya Sánchez/ Boyfriend: Loenardo Perucci /
