The uncanny events in the diary of an inquiring teenager: an aesthetic analysis of the feature film Vida de Menina by Helena Solberg

Abstract

This paper answers how the fantastic genre of audiovisual (encompassing the fantasmatic, the fantasy and the marvelous) allows the creation of representations for social change, particularly from the spreading of feminist messages. These comments are based on the analysis of Helena Solberg’s first fictional feature film: Vida de Menina (2003). Employing these concepts regarding the fantastic, the paper also goes through some works by other Latin American women directors who began their careers in the 1960s and 1970s. Elements that show breaks from reality – such as a spirit that separates from the body, metaphors of women being crucified, and the frightening voice of a witch - appear in documentaries and fictions made by this group of women authors. From Solberg’s work especially, we selected two sequences of interest: a girl being dragged into hell amid flames after not fully confessing her sins; and the unexplained and fairy tale style death of a black woman. These narratives discuss the role of women in regard to marriage, work, and beauty. We therefore argue that the film plays with the protagonist’s inquiring personality at the same time it constructs an allegory for gender oppressions, showing this violence as inescapable.