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The Paraguayan award-winning film "The Heiresses'' tells the story of a woman in her 60s who lives with her woman partner in an upper class suburb in Asuncion, and is yet to be screened in Paraguay, a mostly conservative society.
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Chela, the main character, is played by Ana Brun, who says she has a very similar life to the character she portrays. “I see some of my own life in Chela,” Brun said. “We have detractors already, because we're old and also lesbians. But fortunately there's more acceptance than rejection,” she said.
In an interview with the BBC, Brun talks about how she felt playing Chela, drawing parallels between both lives. Bruns says she understood the processes that Chela was living through, having an accommodated life and all of a sudden shaking up her world and going out of her comfort zone as an adult.
“I read it and I liked it, even thouogh I knew the lesbianism theme would cause problems, but I realized that theme wasn't the most important thing, at least to me. It was just another part in Chela's character,” Brun told the BBC.
Brun also talked about the Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship in Paraguay and the problems she suffered because she was married to an opposition politician. “The dictatorship that Paraguay lived left a lot of marks, but chains have been breaking free and the country is shaping a new face,” she said.
The film, directed by Marcelo Martinessi, was awarded with the Best Movie Prize by the Film Festival of Cartagena and the Fiipresci prize by the International Federation of Cinematography Press, and Brun was awarded with the Best Actress by Berlin's International Film Festival.
Brun is optimistic about the movie, and hopes that it is welcomed by the Paraguayans when it premieres on national cinemas.
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