"The Heiresses" was a big hit on the festival circuit, winning both the Silver Bear and the Best Actress Award at Berlin. It hails from Paraguay and, although written and directed by a man, Marcello Martinessi, has an almost exclusively female cast, few of whom, despite their ages, have worked in film before and deals with the fractious but loving relationship between two women in a domestic partnership for over thirty years but now feeling the pinch and the pain of getting old, not to mention separation, when one of them goes to prison for fraud.
Martinessi's film is a beautifully observed character study and is superbly played by Ana Brun, (winner of that Berlin acting award), and Margarita Irun as the women in question. Neither of them are necessarily sympathetic but Martinessi treats them with a great deal of compassion and their pain is palpable. These are women who, out of necessity perhaps, still employ a maid, even if paying for groceries is a problem, living an enclosed and sheltered life with very little interaction with the outside world. It is a film full of routine and yet it is never dull. Indeed, it is something of a privilege to spend time with these heiresses as they make the trivialities of everyday life seem exciting. Quite wonderful in its own quiet way.
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