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‘Memories of a Burning Body’ Review: Women Rebel Against a Conservative Culture in Costa Rica’s Oscar Submission
Antonella Sudasassi Furniss looks at Costa Rican women raised to fear their sexuality in Costa Rica's international feature Oscar submission.
There’s an unexpected implication when Antonella Sudasassi Furniss exposes the parameters of her film set at the start of “ Memories of a Burning Body,” following lead Sol Carabello into one room to have her makeup done and a gaffer in another arranging the lights for a scene. By granting anonymity to the women as they speak candidly about bedroom behavior and domestic abuse, the filmmaker sets up a visual challenge — not unlike the one recently faced by director Anna Hints, who turned a spa into a fascinating forum to air out similar thoughts about repressed desires and marginalization in “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood.” Sudasassi Furniss’ approach is similarly novel, following around a nameless woman around the flat from the time she was a young girl (played at various ages by Carballo, Paulina Bernini and Juliana Filloy), while remaining primarily preoccupied with typical domestic duties. But the flights of fancy within the same space effectively remind of the strict borders around their experience, as the women also recall panicking over getting their first period with no education from their Catholic schools to prepare them, as well as awkward sexual encounters where their own pleasure was considered a distant second to the goal of procreation.
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