knasil

One of the best movies I've watched in years. A masterpiece in every sense from the storytelling going through the production and ending with the masterful photography. It remainded me other such "childhood memories" masterpieces like Amarcord or even Bergman's Fanny and Alexander. The movie shows a year (circa 1970) in the life of a middle class, intellectual family through the eyes of their domestic helper, Cleo. She comes from a small town, has an indigenous background and works for the family within one of these arrangements (common in underdeveloped parts of the world) where the worker is treated somewhere between older sister and slave. She is emotionally involved with the children in a reciprocal relationship but she still has to work with very few (if any) worker's rights. The relationship is indeed complex and its treatment is the main strenght of the movie in my view. For those of us who where partly raised by these amazingly loving women the movie is an emotional tour-de-force. For the rest, the movie is a must. Please watch it.