Ivan Kander
One of the most intricate short character portraits I’ve seen in quite some time, filmmaker Ricardo Varona’s La mujer de Héctor (Hector’s Woman) has been stuck in my head ever since I first screened it. The best kind of filmmaking is layered: ostensibly simple set-ups can be peeled back to reveal complexity underneath. With Hector’s Woman, what starts as a potentially melodramatic premise (a struggling mother must raise her child while her husband is incarcerated), ends up being a nuanced look at the various roles the protagonist, Paola, must inhabit, torn between her maternal obligations and her own desires. The result is a deft look at the complexity that lives within every person, and this strange dance between how one perceives themself and how one is perceived by others.
The idea of a “likable protagonist” is a somewhat archaic idea in modern filmmaking. Paola is neither a martyr or a villain. Rather, the film seems to live in a moral gray area. She loves and cares for her daughter, yes, but she’s also simultaneously bored of her, feeling metaphorically imprisoned while her husband is literally incarcerated. The film never states this parallel in an obvious fashion, and it’s a testament to Varona’s skillful filmmaking that the short’s metaphors and symbolism never feel obvious or manipulative.
Natalia Lugo as Paola, the central character in Ricardo Varona’s layered short
I like how we see so many aspects of Paola’s character— from tender mother to sexual being—in such a brief run-time. The film reaches its subtle climax when the various roles Paola plays uncomfortably merge together as her daughter creeps into the bed she is sharing with a one-night stand. Again, Varona isn’t interested in casting judgment on Paola, but rather he is showing the complex stew of desires that formulate a singular being. The result seems to be a call for empathy: to understand that people rarely make decisions designed to hurt others, especially as they seek to find themself.
As Varona relates to Short of the Week:
“I think that a lot of the themes and situations I explore deal with highly flawed individuals who, in spite of their situations and past traumas, bring a lot of love to the table. I’m hoping that this type of storytelling permits us to scrutinize our own judgments and allows us to be more forgiving, empathic people.”
La mujer de Héctor played a variety of festivals during its run, including Palm Springs ShortFest, Nashville, and Woodstock. Varona is currently wrapping-up a new short film about a pigeon breeder in Brooklyn who reconnects with his estranged daughter.