Stories

LAURA | ESMERALDA | TELMA | ANA | MARTILEIDE

 

ESMERALDA
|Bom Jesus da Lapa e Salvador, BA|

FICTION


Scene 1: Bom Jesus da Lapa(Bahia) – ext/early evening

Aerial view of the town with its caves and rocks and the bridge over the São Francisco River. A clearing of light stand out near the town’s main church. There are hundreds of pilgrims, each holding a candle on the Eve of August 6th, the town’s saint’s day.


Scene 2: House in Bom Jesus da Lapa (Bahia) – int/night

It is the kitchen. Two feet rest on the aluminium bowl. A wrinkled hand pours hot water over the girl’s feet into the bowl. The girl rubs one foot against the other. We pull back to reveal: ESMERALDA, the owner of the feet sitting in a chair. She is a good-looking woman in her forties, whose face bears no trace of make-up or any other adornment. She is dressed in clothes from a bygone age. Beside her stands DALVINA, her governess, an elderly woman with coarse, country features and a gentle, incisive look, with a kettle in her hand. She has a wistful, far-off look in her eyes.


ESMERALDA had been raised with strict moral values, like any country girl. She would have to get married, have children and become a housewife or, at the very most, a teacher. ESMERALDA’s parents, ARMINDA and ARTUR, made every effort to give her the best upbringing possible. But, behind this girl of exemplary good manners, there lay hidden a bold and determined girl, able to hide her own feelings. Only DALVINA, her old nanny, has ever perceived this side of ESMERALDA, but who, through some strange protective instinct, never breathed a word to the master and mistress.


Bom Jesus da Lapa soon becomes too small for all that ESMERALDA wants and she eventually moves to Salvador with her parents. Once in the State Capital, it is not long before she leaves her parents and embarks on a life shrouded in mystery and contradictions. Little by little, we begin to learn of the hidden side of our protagonist and we find out that she has become the mistress and right-arm of one of the most corrupt politicians of the President Collor era, congressman OLAVINHO PESSOA.


The time comes when ESMERALDA really wants to change her way of life. She believes that a son would help her to regain her faith, her roots and her family values. This time, however, is not the most propitious for this transformation. The news of her pregnancy coincides with the press’s discovery of the political scandal involving her lover. The congressman’s reaction is violent and, having beaten her, he throws her out of his apartment and his life. Penniless and having lost the baby, there is only one option open to ESMERALDA which is to return to Bom Jesus da Lapa, where she will find her mother and her nanny have returned since ARTUR’s death. ARMINDA receives her prodigal daughter with open arms, while DALVINA is more concerned with the bruises on ESMERALDA’s face, hidden behind dark glasses.

ESMERALDA promises them both that she will return to the faith that she has always rejected. She goes on the pilgrimage to the caves and after hour upon hour praying at the sanctuary, she passes out. When she comes round, having spent some days in hospital, she seems to have changed completely. This time, she surprises and even manages to convince DALVINA of this change.


FINAL SCENE

DALVINA, sitting in a couch at work on her embroidery, watches ESMERALDA playing the piano and eventually nods off.
ESMERALDA looks at her watch and gets up. She walks past DALVINA who is asleep on the couch in front of the television with her embroidery in her lap.

ESMERALDA leaves. On her way to the back door, she lets down her hair. She opens the door and a 20-year-old Boy slips inside. They creep past until they reach the bedroom. They go inside and she closes the door. There is a pause.

 

DOCUMENTARY

The documentary feature of this story is the pilgrimage and its relationship with faith and the dreams and values of a girl born in a country town and the viewpoint of women who live a profane life, while encloistered by the sacred.