Solas (film)
Encyclopedia
Solas is a 1999
Spanish film
written and directed by Benito Zambrano
, starring María Galiana, Ana Fernández
and Carlos Álvarez-Novoa.
The film explores the lives of a mother and daughter and their struggle for survival and happiness. Both of the women in the story are portrayed as alone (sola, plural solas), each in her own way.
It won five Goya awards
in 2000 and several other prizes.
, where Maria lives. Rosa has been staying at the hospital with him, but the doctor tells her to leave before she falls ill herself. Maria takes Rosa to stay with her in the rundown suburban apartment where she lives, and Rosa rides the bus every day to visit her husband.
Maria is intelligent and wanted an education, but her father wouldn't allow it. Now, at 35, she works for a cleaning service; she is lonely, poor, angry and bitter. She discovers she is pregnant by a man who doesn't want a baby and tells Maria to get an abortion. When she tells him she wants to have the baby and raise it with him, the man rejects her. In her anger and despair, Maria starts drinking heavily.
As her mother Rosa returns from shopping one day, she meets Maria's neighbor (vecino) Don Emilio (Carlos Álvarez-Novoa), a kind old widower living alone with his dog. A friendship blossoms between them: he lends Rosa some money when she runs short at the supermarket, and she cooks for him after he burns a stew he forgot was cooking. He falls in love with Rosa, but Rosa is faithful to her abusive husband. (At one point she says to Maria about her father, "He must not have an easy conscience. I do.")
Rosa's husband recovers and she returns with him to the country, not knowing about Maria's pregnancy. Maria tells Don Emilio about the baby and tells him she plans to abort it. In a long, emotional scene, he offers to be like a grandfather to the child if she decides to keep it, but Maria has been so badly treated by the men in her life that she has trouble believing him.
The movie ends with Maria visiting her parents' grave with her baby girl and Don Emilio. He is going to sell his apartment in Seville and the three of them will move into Rosa's house in the country to raise the baby.
1999 in film
The year 1999 in film involved several noteworthy events and has been called "The Year That Changed Movies". Several significant feature films, including Stanley Kubrick's final film Eyes Wide Shut, Pedro Almodóvar's first Oscar-winning film All About My Mother, science fiction The Matrix, Deep...
Spanish film
Cinema of Spain
The art of motion-picture making within the nation of Spain or by Spanish filmmakers abroad is collectively known as Spanish Cinema.In recent years, Spanish cinema has achieved high marks of recognition as a result of its creative and technical excellence...
written and directed by Benito Zambrano
Benito Zambrano
Benito Zambrano , is an awarded Spanish screenwriter and film director. His film Habana Blues was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival...
, starring María Galiana, Ana Fernández
Ana Fernández
Ana Ivis Fernández Valle is a Cuban volleyball player, and three times Olympic Champion as a member of the Cuban winning team in 1992, 1996 and 2000.-Individual awards:* 1998 World Championship "Best Spiker"-References:...
and Carlos Álvarez-Novoa.
The film explores the lives of a mother and daughter and their struggle for survival and happiness. Both of the women in the story are portrayed as alone (sola, plural solas), each in her own way.
It won five Goya awards
Goya Awards
The Goya Awards, known in Spanish as los Premios Goya, are Spain's main national film awards, considered by many in Spain, and internationally, to be the Spanish equivalent of the American Academy Awards....
in 2000 and several other prizes.
Plot synopsis
Solas (Alone) tells the story of Maria (Ana Fernández) and her mother Rosa (María Galiana). Maria is one of four adult children, all of whom moved as far as they could get from their parents and the farm where they grew up. Before the movie starts, the father (later revealed to be a violent, cruel, abusive man) has fallen ill and been brought to a hospital in SevilleSeville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, where Maria lives. Rosa has been staying at the hospital with him, but the doctor tells her to leave before she falls ill herself. Maria takes Rosa to stay with her in the rundown suburban apartment where she lives, and Rosa rides the bus every day to visit her husband.
Maria is intelligent and wanted an education, but her father wouldn't allow it. Now, at 35, she works for a cleaning service; she is lonely, poor, angry and bitter. She discovers she is pregnant by a man who doesn't want a baby and tells Maria to get an abortion. When she tells him she wants to have the baby and raise it with him, the man rejects her. In her anger and despair, Maria starts drinking heavily.
As her mother Rosa returns from shopping one day, she meets Maria's neighbor (vecino) Don Emilio (Carlos Álvarez-Novoa), a kind old widower living alone with his dog. A friendship blossoms between them: he lends Rosa some money when she runs short at the supermarket, and she cooks for him after he burns a stew he forgot was cooking. He falls in love with Rosa, but Rosa is faithful to her abusive husband. (At one point she says to Maria about her father, "He must not have an easy conscience. I do.")
Rosa's husband recovers and she returns with him to the country, not knowing about Maria's pregnancy. Maria tells Don Emilio about the baby and tells him she plans to abort it. In a long, emotional scene, he offers to be like a grandfather to the child if she decides to keep it, but Maria has been so badly treated by the men in her life that she has trouble believing him.
The movie ends with Maria visiting her parents' grave with her baby girl and Don Emilio. He is going to sell his apartment in Seville and the three of them will move into Rosa's house in the country to raise the baby.