The early teens are difficult years, but rarely so insurmountable as depicted in Perfume de Violetas, a noir feminist Mexican film directed by Maryse Sistach. Thirteen-year-old Yessica (played by Ximena Ayala) is trying to enjoy a happy life, but the odds are against her. Her father is dead. Her stepfather does not care about her. Her late-teen stepbrother (played by Luis Fernando Peña), who collects fares on a bus, engages in mischief and then lays the blame on her. Her mother (played by María Rojo) believes the stepbrother's version of events to please her new husband. And evidently the principal of her México City school annoyed her to the point where she slapped him. When the film begins, Yessica's mother is escorting her to a new school because of her expulsion by that principal. Unhappy that she will no longer see her schoolfriends at the old school, she is fortunate to quickly befriend Miriam (played by Nancy Gutiérrez), whom she sits behind in history class. Miriam has no close friends and also has a single mom, (played by Arcelia Ramírez), so the two girls play together after school. Both girls are from poor families, but Miriam's apartment at least has a bathtub, and the entry door has a lock. One day, one of the boys at school grabs some of Miriam's photographs, whereupon Yessica intervenes; a scuffle ensues. Nevertheless, Yessica is blamed and punished by the school principal. On two occasions, her stepbrother makes some extra money by arranging to have the driver of his bus abduct, rob, and rape Yessica. She confides in Miriam after the first rape, and school officials become aware of the second rape, but Miriam fears that worse will happen to her if she tries to report the identity of the rapist. Although Yessica has many happy moments, she is not blameless either. She steals a vial of Perfume de Violetas from a stall at a street market, and then sneaks away so rapidly that Miriam gets the blame. She also steals money that Miriam's mother has squirreled away to buy a new television set. Finally, Miriam's mother persuades her to drop Yessica as a friend and even to insist that Yessica must return the stolen money and the cost of the perfume that Miriam's mother paid to avoid a jail sentence for her daughter. At the end of the film, Miriam confronts Yessica to demand the money while calling her a whore. What happens next is why Perfume de Violetas is a noir film that seeks to explain not only how cruelly men dominate women in México but also how desperate life is for those who are poor in México City. MH
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