Beauty

Look for the beauty in the sparse landscape, with its twisting tangled trees that take on human forms. The once-fertile grassland of the stoic Wichi people of northern Argentina has been gradually appropriated by outsiders, forcing them to adapt to the dry, sandy desert. Now teenage Yolanda has come from her people to work as a maid for a typically self-absorbed Argentine family who are distracted by the bustle of modern life. The stressed matriarch Sara tries to manage her brood of four noisy boys and ungainly teen daughter, who is about to celebrate her quinceañera. While Sara chatters endlessly about her party plans, sloe-eyed Yolanda stands apart from the whirlwind of activity, rooted like the trees over the rushing water. She dreams of the spiritual wisdom she found as a child among her people. When the family thoughtlessly forces a makeover on Yolanda, it crushes her soul but leaves her dignity unbowed. BEAUTY is a shimmering, poetic film. (In Spanish and Wichi Lhämtes with subtitles) – B.B.