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IN THE NAME OF THE GIRL

EN EL NOMBRE DE LA HIJA

By Tania HERMIDA

Family - Completed 2011

Karl Marx's famous quotation "Religion is the opium of the people" is one of the 'odd' ideas nine-year-old Manuela confronts her ultra-catholic family with, while she tries to teach her little cousins the basic principles of communism...

- Year of production
- 2011
- Genres
- Family, Children's
- Countries
- ECUADOR
- Languages
- SPANISH
- Duration
- 100 mn
- Director(s)
- Tania HERMIDA
- Writer(s)
- Tania HERMIDA
- Cast
- Eva Mayu MECHAM, Markus MECHAM, Juana ESTRELLA, Pancho AGUIRRE
- ISAN
- 0000-0002-C212-0000-6-0000-0000-J
- Producer(s)
- Mary PALACIOS (Ecuador para largo), Tania HERMIDA (Ecuador para largo)
- Synopsis
- Karl Marx's famous quotation "Religion is the opium of the people" is one of the 'odd' ideas nine-year-old Manuela confronts her ultra-catholic family with, while she tries to teach her little cousins the basic principles of communism...
  It is the summer of 1976 in a valley of the Andes Mountains in Ecuador. Manuela, educated according to the communist and atheistic ideals of her beloved father, believes her parents to be on a revolutionary mission in Colombia, while she and her five-year-old brother Camilo have to spend the summer at their grandparents' farmhouse.
  Of course, in a catholic-conservative household a nine-year-old's Marxist world outlook will cause trouble. Manuela eagerly defends her father's political and philosophical ideas, unwilling to obey her grandmother's conservative rules.
  The old lady, alarmed by the harmful influence Manuela has on the rest of the family's kids, threatens to send her back to her parents unless she accepts to be baptized. Manuela, who is determined not to interrupt her parents' very important mission, accepts the deal.
  Following the family tradition according to which the eldest daughters and grand-daughters must carry the name of the Virgin of Dolores, her name is changed to ‘Manuela de los Dolores' during the baptism ceremony. Outraged by this imposition, Manuela defies her grandparents' most severe rule and, together with her cousins, sets out to explore the forbidden library of the farmhouse, where they find schizophrenic Uncle Felipe, who has been kept hidden for years, devoted to setting words free from the constraints of dogmas.
  The encounter with her uncle's crazy wisdom provides Manuela the means to free herself from her own dogmas and changes her relationship with words - including her own name.