Icíar Bollaín

This movie can also be seen as a means of instruction for foreign students. It shows several key aspects of both the history of Spain and the socio-cultural evolution of the country. It tells the story of three women, Milady, from Cuba, Patricia, from the Dominican Republic and Marirrosi, from Bilbao. They have several existential problems and concerns regarding their future. These problems are similar to those suffered by three young men from Santa Eulalia, a village from the Province of Guadalajara, which is an unimportant small town without marriageable women. Damian, Alfonso and Carmelo (these young men) come into contact with the three women at a party organized by single people of the village. There they got to know each other and this gives place to a bittersweet story.

This cinematographic work is useful from an academic point of view, not only for its historical value, but also because it is presented as an open window that allows the viewer to take the place of the characters, suffering with them the same surprises and impressions, since the point of arrival of the women to Santa Eulalia. Other essential aspects of the film are that it offers the opportunity to understand one of the main points of the novel: the problems of the Spanish countryside. At the same time, Icíar Bollaín preserves the classic stereotypes of the typical Spanish town, where the bar is the most important forum for meetings and ideological defenses. But Bollaín doesn't leave behind the important issue of the leading sexism of the time, and she is also concerned to mitigate it largely by introducing characters like Doña Gregoria, who is the mother of one of the young men and also the reflection of the rural matriarchy.

Foreignness is another key point in this story. At the beginning of the film, with the arrival of the three women to the village, the feeling of strangeness and rejection towards the foreigners appears. However it starts disappearing with the development of loving relationships between them and the young men of Santa Eulalia. This is a clear solution to the problem of foreignness. Icíar Bollaín doesn't present a problem without the corresponding solution, introducing an integrative ideology that breaks with cultural and racial barriers, which is another important pillar of the film that is a recognized pedagogical intention.

Bollaín sets the film during the Spanish property bubble to reflect the issues and consequences that even today directly affect Spanish society. Flowers from Another World analyses not only the racial issue but also the role of women at that time. This can even be compared to other similar cases in which women start a movement for social integration, as in the case of the Mexican immigrant women in the United States. Everything is portrayed through the figures of the three women who star in this story.

This film is characterized for introducing a new element: the Painting. The use of pictorial art enriches the staging and the story itself, analyzing the narrative function that the works of this style can have within the Cinematography. While the painting does not carry a major role in the story of Pilar, a victim of domestic violence, it is crucial to the development of the main character. Thus, the Painting may be seen as a connector rather than a main narrative axis.

Somehow, through the painting, it is observed throughout the film how Pilar gets rid of the chains of the violence and abuse made by her husband. As Icíar Bollaín said, "Pilar meets art and thus begins to grow up emotionally and as a result she escapes from her difficult situation".This could be taken as an example for all the women who have the same problem, so that they can stop the abuse and free themselves from those chains as Pilar does in the movie. Throughout the film different pictures (mainly Mythology ones) are used to reflect the development of the main character on a personal and social level.

This film by Icíar Bollaín could be perfectly defined as a "film within a film" because it uses two storylines to tell the tense situation that exists in Bolivia. All related to the heritage and colonial legacy. On the one hand, in this film, there is a low budget film about Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of America in 1492 being recorded. While, on the other hand, the famous Water War (Bolivia) of Cochabamba (April 2000) is taking place. What Icíar Bollaín tries to represent using a historiographical discourse and filmic fiction, is the intersectionality between the European conquest and colonialism of 1492, the rise of neoliberalism in impoverished nations in the late 20th and early 21st century (in Bolivia the privatization of public resources, like water). Added to this analysis is the irony that the film company that is creating a revisionist historical drama, intended to bring light to the rape, enslavement, and genocide of Caribbean indigenous peoples by Columbus, is perhaps perpetuating neocolonialism through a process of film-making that commodifies indigenous peoples of Bolivia. Contributing to their poverty and oppression, directors of the film refuse to pay them a living wage while acting in their film. At the same time, indigenous populations revolt due to said privatization. However, by the end of the film, the director realizes his mistake and in a moment of compassion, and at the risk of his own life, saves the daughter of his star actor. The director uses creative license to create a historical drama that fictionalizes characters and narrative details, while presenting a broader historical truth.