I recently saw Clara sola (translates as ‘Lonely Clara’), the first feature from Costa Rican director Nathalie Álvarez Mesén. Clara suffers from a curvature of the spine and lives with her tyrannical mother, who will not allow Clara to undergo corrective surgery. She claims that she must keep Clara as God gave her, essentially trying to keep her 40-year old daughter a child, stifling all pleasure, including her sexuality. As a result of her mother’s restrictions, Clara is a lonely, repressed soul whose work consists mostly of caring for her horse Yuca, with whom she has a nearly-magical bond. Having been visited by the Blessed Virgin Mary as a child, Clara has developed certain gifts, including the knowledge of the secret names of animals and people. Clara’s deceased sister's daughter Maria, who has a close relationship with her aunt, also lives with them. The movie centers around preparations for Maria’s quinceañera, and the climax takes place during that party. There is a dreamy quality to the storytelling, including gorgeous cinematography that steeps you in the Costa Rican landscape and culture.

I’ve been following Alfonso Cuarón since I saw his magnificent retelling of  A Little Princess back in 1995. Since then he has given us his own adaptations of:

Gravity (2013)

 

I finally got to watch Alfonso Cuarón’s 2018 semi-autobiographical movie Roma.  Shot in luminous black-and-white, Roma follows the life of Cleo, the live-in Mixtec housekeeper to an upper-middle-class family living in the Colonia Roma neighborhood of Mexico City. In addition to Cleo, the household consists of Sofia and her husband Antonio, their four school-age children, and Sofia’s mother Teresa.

Spanning the years 1970-1971, the plot unfolds as with Cleo discovers that she is pregnant, and continues to her abandonment in a movie theater by her boyfriend after she informs him that he is the father. Cleo later finds him training at a military-style camp in an impoverished district at the edge of Mexico City, where he refuses to acknowledge paternity and threatens both her and the baby. She returns home, where Sofia strongly suspects that her husband is having an affair. The film follows both of these threads amid political violence in the city’s streets.

El Conde is a Chilean horror/comedy from Chilean director Pablo Larraín (Jackie (2016) ; Spencer (2022))
that satirizes dictator Augusto Pinochet in his (VERY) late years, 

 

Honestly, the less said about the plot, the better as I wouldn’t want to ruin any of El Conde’s delights. Beautiful and funny, surprisingly sweet and charming, a little bit gory, definitely dark, it is, so far, my favorite movie this year, hands-down: I’ve watched it four times over the span of a few weeks. Unfortunately, it has not been released on disc yet, but it is available to stream from Netflix. We will add it to the collection as soon as it’s available on DVD or BluRay.

As hopeful as it is heartrending, "From Here" is a coming-of-age memoir about one young woman's search for belonging and the many meanings of home for those who must leave theirs. Growing up in Jordan, Mufleh had to hide the person she was becoming, especially as she grappled with her attraction toward women.  When she's accepted into college in the United States, Mufleh leaves Jordan and has to carve out a difficult new path as a refugee, finding support through friends who eventually became like family.

We who produce pearls
by Joanna Ho
Grades 2-3
 

The Iguanodon's horn: how artists and scientists put a dinosaur back together again and again
by Sean Rubin
Ages 4-8