MVFF44 (Bronze/Silver)

In Nathalie Álvarez Mesén’s quietly seething feature debut, a Costa Rican woman rebels against her family’s regressive, controlling ways. The titular Clara is a shy, revered healer in a Costa Rican village but her heavenly gift is also a worldly prison. Her mother insists that Clara remain a virgin and that she forgo necessary surgery that could help her walk without pain—all to keep her “special.” Dancer Wendy Chinchilla Araya plays Clara with mesmerizing ambiguity, bringing both vulnerability and power to this eros-driven, increasingly rebellious rural mystic, whose anger will literally shake this world. In the dimmed and lushly smoky textures of her forest environs, so richly rendered by cinematographer Sophie Winqvist, Clara’s enlightenment feels like a real epiphany. Clara Sola effortlessly melds an earthy tale of familial stricture with genuine spiritual wonder.