Antonia's Line

A friend of mine recently leant me this video.  This is one of those films that I had meant to see for some time.  It has the credentials to be a good flick, but, for some reason or other, I always passed it over.  This might have been by sad fate for a lifetime if not for a chance conversation that lead to the loan of the video.

I have been missing a treasure for some time with this movie.  It is about a woman and her young daughter who return to their rural (Dutch) village shortly after the end of World War II.  Here, they make their life on the small family farm of the woman's youth, her mother having passed away upon their arrival back home.  It then follows them for a span of about thirty-five years through which there are two more generations of the family, and the family unit grows by extension through others who find refuge on the farm.

When I watch a film, even an 'art' film, I tend to enjoy it at face value and am not one to look for meaning or subtext.  What can I say?  That's me.  However, I will say that I took away from this film that it is about refuge, and love, acceptance and growth, and tragedy and retribution as we see all of these things played out through the many people we meet.

Antonia, the woman who returns home, is a simple woman who cherishes her independence, is accepting and loving of her family, defends the meek, and seeks solace as well as sexual pleasure in the company of a nearby farmer, a widower with five sons of his own.  The man is just and incredibly liberal in that he does not have a traditional relationship with Antonia.  He defends Antonia and her daughter Danielle against the tyranny of the local priest.  He accepts her as friend, companion, and family, although she refuses his rather pragmatic proposal of marriage.

Antonia's daughter, Danielle, has her mother's sense of justice and is the first to bring someone to the farm, a hapless semi-retarded farm girl whom she has witnessed being raped by her (the farm girl, Dee dee) brutal elder brother.  In the course of the rescue, Danielle skewers the brother with a pitchfork, driving him from the village for a time, but we have not seen the last of him.

As I write this, the hour is quite late.  I could go on and on, but I hope your appetite is whetted for this film by now as I have fed you but a morsel of all that happens in this tale and it is well worth the viewing in my opinion.  Please enjoy, Antonia's Line.