La tirisia

In a remote corner of Oaxaca in the south of Mexico, between the towering cactuses and enormous salt flats, Cheba is pregnant by her neighbour, the salt producer Silvestre, who spends most of the day staring at aircraft flying towards the United States. Soon after she has her baby, Cheba’s husband returns from the United States after years away. The child has already been housed by Silvestre with his wife Ángeles.
The beautifully framed and photographed Perpetual Sadness forms a duet with Spiral from 2008, in which Jorge Pérez Solano focuses on the consequences of emigration for those who stay behind in Mexico, especially for the women. Without a husband, they are powerless according to local custom, which plays a prominent role in Perpetual Sadness; single mothers are considered to be social failures. They also can't count on any understanding of their need for physical, sexual attention. A penetrating social-realist drama that has already won several awards.