This film reminded me a lot of Sara Gomez's De Cierta Manera in that it uses romance to challenge traditional gender norms during a revolutionary time, using Beatriz as a vehicle to reject passivity and love as a way to reshape what masculinity is defined by. In the film, love is not presented as soft but rather as something that entails confrontation, a pathway to change that is not comfortable but necessary.
Beatriz refuses to be a woman who requires protection or who falls into submissiveness. She is perceived as different from others, yet not as less of a woman because of it. Her father hands her a gun to protect the house, she slaps the General for being a "pelado," and she refuses to be negotiated for. She states that "hay cosas que reclaman mejor las mujeres," embracing her power because she is a woman and not despite it. Even in her wedding, she wears a black dress, a simple wardrobe choice that negates traditional ideas of femininity.
The General is first presented as a harsh man, yet even in his introduction, he finds a softness for love. The emotional hardness that seems to surround him slowly collapses as the film progresses and his love for Beatriz deepens. Rather than becoming weak because of this, he gains a different kind of power, one that motivates him to change while continuing to do what is best for the revolution. It is this power of love that leads to his confession to Beatriz in the end, and that same power that draws Beatriz into joining the fight.
This film reminded me a lot of Sara Gomez's De Cierta Manera in that it uses romance to challenge traditional gender norms during a revolutionary time, using Beatriz as a vehicle to reject passivity and love as a way to reshape what masculinity is defined by. In the film, love is not presented as soft but rather as something that entails confrontation, a pathway to change that is not comfortable but necessary.
Beatriz refuses to be a woman who requires protection or who falls into submissiveness. She is perceived as different from others, yet not as less of a woman because of it. Her father hands her a gun to protect the house, she slaps the General for being a "pelado," and she refuses to be negotiated for. She states that "hay cosas que reclaman mejor las mujeres," embracing her power because she is a woman and not despite it. Even in her wedding, she wears a black dress, a simple wardrobe choice that negates traditional ideas of femininity.
The General is first presented as a harsh man, yet even in his introduction, he finds a softness for love. The emotional hardness that seems to surround him slowly collapses as the film progresses and his love for Beatriz deepens. Rather than becoming weak because of this, he gains a different kind of power, one that motivates him to change while continuing to do what is best for the revolution. It is this power of love that leads to his confession to Beatriz in the end, and that same power that draws Beatriz into joining the fight.
