All About My Mother

4. I think this film makes a very profound statement about women, love, and their varying forms and identities. Throughout the film there is a constant skew of accepted or general gender roles. Each woman in the story takes a very existentialist approach to their life in a way. Lola and Agrado, whom both identified as women, though were transgendered. Lola actually goes on to father two different children, and even remain married to Manuela. Manuela takes on a very dominate yet gentle role, sheltering Rosa; raising Rosa’s child, and her own; and constantly flees from the many difficult situations, to do what is right. Even Huma breaks the typical roles, as an older woman who is having relations with another woman. Finally Rosa represents a very interesting character. A woman who helps the prostitutes, is a nun, and ends up having a relation with another woman, who fathered her child. I think this entire story skews the black and white views people have about sexuality to push people to understand that this are not polarized, and love is ambiguous.

5. I believe the mother in the film is all of the collective women who tie together to create a living story of love, loss, and finding happiness. Each one gives to the situation a certain charm and elegance that continues to refine the story and further tie people together. The speaker of the title in my opinion is Manuela’s son Estaban, who almost narrates how him own father, Lola, brings people together in this extremely unconventional story.