THE HEIRESSES

Driving for the first time in years, she begins to provide a local taxi service to a group of elderly wealthy ladies as they do old lady things, like going to the hairdressers and meeting for card games.

As Chela settles into her new life, she encounters the much younger and flirtier Angy (Ana Ivanova) when she drives her mother to medical appointments in nearby Itauguá. Chela begins to forge a fresh and electric new connection with the casually sensual Angy, who operates in a world of sexual possibility - in that world, none of the rigid class distinctions matter.

The debut film of writer/director Marcelo Martinessi, ‘The Heiresses’ is essentially about how social hierarchy can be its own form of confinement. Chiquita is sent to debtor’s prison when she loses her wealth, but that loss allows Chela to finally begin to break out of her shell and engage with the world, embarking on her own personal, intimate revolution. Brun, a theatre veteran who had never acted onscreen before (like almost the entire all-female cast), turns in a guarded yet tremulous performance. As a woman once on top but now having to embarrassingly take money from her friends as she hits rock bottom, Brun lets us see how her character motivates herself through such a troubling time without looking weak.

Aided by cinematographer Luis Armando Arteaga's use of widescreen to emphasise the limitations of Chela’s world and shadows to articulate the faded glories of Chela and Chiquita’s diminished lifestyle, Martinessi’s ‘The Heiresses’ is a delicate exploration of sexuality, ageing, class, and privilege.