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Clip description
Lola (Lola Marceli) has become obsessed with cleanliness since the departure of Ricardo, her husband. When she discovers lice in her hair, the family’s pet bird is tossed out the door. Lucia (Alice Ansara) loses most of her long hair in her mother’s rage.
Curator’s notes
As Lola makes clear, the lice are not the real reason she attacks her daughter’s hair. She regards her as a traitor in the war with Ricardo. And in the war that Lola has just come through, collaborating women had their heads shaved. Lola’s desire to hurt things – other people, or a defenceless bird – is almost pathological at this stage in the film. It could easily have become very unsympathetic but Marceli lets us see a slight moment of self-recognition as she’s hacking away at the hair. Even she finds her own rage bewildering.
