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From almost the first moment she appears on screen decorating a cake at a family gathering, it is obvious that Isa (Daniela Valenciano), the hero of The Awakening of the Ants, is unwell. The cause of her affliction is equally clear. Everyone has an opinion about how she could be doing a better job, not least her mother-in-law Carmen (Katia Arce), the coffee she made is terrible, and they all want to know when she and her husband Alcides (Leynar Gomez) are going to have another baby. The expression on her face when he announces that they’re trying makes it clear that it’s news to her that this was fair game for conversation and suggests that the matter might also not be quite as decided as he makes it sound.

The remainder of the first half of the film chronicles a steady worsening of Isa’s condition, beginning just a few seconds later with a hallucination: she imagines herself plunging her hands into the aforementioned cake and then eating it by the fistful. Although the soundtrack emphasizes the sounds of her breathing and the cake squishing between her fingers to an unnatural degree, there aren’t otherwise any indications that this isn’t really happening until someone interrupts her reverie: Isa is startled, but the cake is untouched.

Subsequent episodes see Isa imagining herself reaching into the grass and pulling up clumps of human hair, taking a shower in a bathroom full of buzzing insects, and pulling hair out of a sewing machine. She also dreams that her hair is falling out and seems to constantly be brushing ants off of things. Meanwhile, she frequently seems physically ill. Most of these moments follow a stressful encounter involving a family member: Alcides disregards clear indications that she is no longer in the mood for sex, he ignores her when she tries to tell him about a newly-vacant storefront that she might want to rent for her sewing business, her friend Mireya (Carolina Fernandez) suggests that the reason her daughter Valery (Isabella Moscoso) is “swaying” so much might be because she’s figured out that it feels good, which clearly bothers Isa (“she’s too young!” is her reply).

Matters come to a head when Isa asks Mireya to pick Valery and her sister Nicole (Avril Alpízar) up from school so that she can run errands. When she goes to Mireya’s house afterward to get them, no one is there; when she finally locates Mireya at the bar where she works, she informs her that they ran into Carmen, who took the girls. Carmen was supposed to tell Isa, but never did. When Isa finally finds the girls, Carmen informs her that she “can’t let them go with just anyone,” and when Isa confronts Alcides about the incident later, he defends his mother on the grounds that she meant well and asks Isa “not to turn it into something big.”

The following scene finds Isa shaking ants off her kitchen curtain. The next one after that begins with her lying in bed next to Alcides. She brings herself to an orgasm without waking him up. The scene ends with ants crawling over a comb. It’s the first time that insects are the focus of a shot and Isa doesn’t interact with them. This is ultimately revealed to be a turning point: the rest of The Awakening of the Ants tells the story of Isa’s halting progress toward regaining control over her life. She uses some of the money she makes from sewing for herself, buying a lightbulb for her sewing room (in one of the film’s nicest touches, she had been unscrewing it from the lamp in the living room each morning and putting it back each evening before her family returned home from work and school) and purchasing birth control pills. The sensual use of close ups and sound previously associated with her hallucinations now show up when she runs her hands over some fabric that she’s purchasing, and non-diegetic music appears for the first time in a scene in which she happily dances alone in the dress that she makes from it. Joyful moments like these ones are punctuated by setbacks like Alcides once again prioritizing his sexual gratification over hers and a conversation between Isa and her sister-in-law, who has found her pills and tells her she needs to talk to her husband.

The film culminates in a family conversation about babies and haircuts and ends with Alcides finally seeming to hear what Isa is saying to him. As described by director Antonella Sudasassi in an introduction to the film published on Mubi’s Notebook, The Awakening of the Ants is part of a transmedia project and draws extensively from imagery created with the goal of demystifying femininity and sexuality and to “provoke a rupture with the violence inherent in traditional gender roles.” Scenes of Isa braiding Valery’s hair while Valery braids Nicole connect Isa’s struggle to that of women everywhere, which has the effect of making her personal triumph simultaneously happier and sadder than it first appears. On the one hand, maybe Isa’s victory, which depends on the assumption that Alcides has actually changed, will prove to be a fleeting one, and in the meantime what of the millions of women around the world in even more dire circumstances? On the other hand, if Isa really has changed her life, maybe they can as well.

Whatever the future holds for Isa, The Awakening of the Ants suggests that great things are on the horizon for first-time feature director Sudasassi. Daniela Valenciano’s ability to always find the correct balance between passion and restraint in the starring role is also impressive, and the cinematography by Andres Campos is effective as well. Here’s hoping we see more of them and Costa Rican cinema soon!

Awards:
Costa Rican Submission for Best International Feature Film, Acadamy Awards; Best Hispano American Film Nominee, Goya Awards; Best Costa Rican Film, Costa Rica International Film Festival; Best Latin Film and Critics Jury Award, and Special Jury Award for Isabella Moscoso and April Alpizar, Gramado Film Festival; Ibero American Competition Grand Jury Prize, Seattle International Film Festival; Special Jury Award, Seoul International Women’s Film Festival

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