Mailin

Mailin esti mesét mond a kislányának, amely lassan saját gyerekkorának történetévé változik. A film archív felvételek, családi videók, bírósági hangfelvételek és animált, álomszerű képek segítségével követi egy nő hosszú útját, hogy újra szembenézzen a gyermekkorában elszenvedett szexuális erőszak emlékével és az igazságszolgáltatás kudarcával.

While telling her daughter a bedtime story, Mailin pieces her memories back together. What could have been a fairy tale turns out to be the story of a young girl who suffered abuse from a priest for 15 years. It’s a long journey towards healing and justice, but also the chance to offer her daughter the childhood she never had.

Mailin, a 37 year old single mother, wakes up in a dreamlike forest. And so, she begins the narration of a fairytale that gradually reveals to be a metaphor of her childhood. This story opens to Mailin’s past and present, while the trial against the priest Carlos José, who abused her for 15 years, unfolds. A fate suffered by other 121 women, whose cases Justice has declared to be prescribed. Through her voice, Mailin speaks in defense of all the others who cannot. Despite the pressure she manages to put her anguish aside for Ona, her 5-year-old daughter, who knows nothing about the process she’s going through.

Mailin wears her brightest smile, while crumbling within, as she goes back in time and tries to remember what she went through during her childhood; memories fragmented by trauma, images that break and freeze. And in the exercise of remembering, the three women of the family—Mailin, her sister Michelle, and her mother Monica—unearth words unsaid. Michelle recalls how this charismatic man swiftly became “ano ther member of the family” while Monica reflects on Mailin’s depression and suicidal thoughts from a very young age.

A story of guilt emerges as a family oppressed by silence blames themselves for not seeing what was happening. And although Mailin has broken her silence to change this narrative, and protect her daughter and other children from Carlos José, she faces a wall of corruption that structures the Justice System.