The Beads

Abortion, even though it is so common, continues to be precariously debated in discussions about reproductive rights in different parts of the world. In Brazil, we are particularly experiencing a political moment of setbacks in relation to reproductive rights, with the strengthening of proposals to prohibit abortion even in situations of sexual violence. AS MIÇANGAS proposes to generate reflections on this theme within a subtle approach, mixing rawness and allegory for this purpose. In this way, the intention is not only to deal with the everyday aspect of this practice, but also with guilt and fraternity.
This is an authorial film that uses a taciturn atmosphere to create false clues about its real motivations. Under an aura of estrangement and incommunicability, the two characters, after driving along a lonely road, arrive at an isolated house in the middle of wild nature. Vulnerable, they do not realize that there is a serpent hidden among the rubble, ready to attack. Although an apparently conflicting situation is presented, the conflict itself does not materialize. The house, despite being precarious, is the place chosen to do something in privacy that requires a careful ritual. It is through small gestures and between the lines that the real motivation of the protagonists is presented. The snake is a distraction for the spectator, but not for the two sisters, who are determined to carry out the procedure. It seems that something will go wrong, but everything works as expected.
Reinforcing the idea that abortion is part of the daily lives of many women is as essential as talking about the challenges of dealing with this decision. Naturally, the snake carries an ambivalent symbolism, adding to the film its allegorical content. Endowed with a moralizing charge, since it is the portal of sin in Christian culture, the snake also carries several other representational charges. In Tantra, for example, it represents sexual/vital energy in flow. Here, the house is the body. And this house breeds that animal. The house carries guilt, stagnated energy. The house is motionless. The house is opaque. In the end, the character who aborts is able to let go of guilt and act with self-responsibility in the face of the circumstance. She symbolically replaces the snake, covered by connotations of guilt and danger, being able to take the animal from the concrete and return it to the vibrant forest, its true home.
Other elements also carry a multiplicity of meanings, such as the beads that give the film its name, which are a secret code used by some support groups for women who seek medication to abort - “I give you the beads so that you can do the necklace". By bringing this subliminal layer, we seek to create a secret link that can only be received and deciphered by women who have already experienced this situation. In addition, since its conception, the film was written in partnership and tailored for the actresses who star in it. Here, they even lend their real names to the characters. It is worth mentioning that Letícia and Pâmela are very similar, something that helps us to emphasize the symbiotic dynamic between them, as well as to consolidate the fraternal aspect of this narrative.