Octavia

Complex Spanish drama is rewarding. A film for grown ups. It is rare to find a production which attempts so complicated a statement. While this makes OCTAVIA demanding viewing, particularly for someone who doesn't speak its language, it remains a work of high seriousness which goes a long way towards achieving it's aims.
　　Key is the scene where Sola, returning to the family home after years of following a troubled international career, goes through his Stasi file (given him by cop Paul Naschy of all people) with his new wife and we get a potted history of the character and Spanish politics since the fifties.
　　The conflict is between the perceptions of Dona Lozano the Carlist matriarch who treasures the Salamanca family traditions and young, intermittently naked grand daughter Menh-Wai/ Octavia product of the (possibly forced) union of the nun daughter (terrific performance) and a jungle guerilla who she imagines is still financing his activities from the cocaine she and her friends use.
　　The situation is explored in a whole variety of situations and scenics which keep turning the audiences perceptions of the characters and their setting.
　　The ending, where the stone slab with the single word on it clunks into place, as Terenza Beganza and the orchestra provide the music which we've been hearing through the production, is a remarkably telling combination.