Tell me if I'm wrong but weren't Christina and Peru half brother and sister? (or were they cousins). I'd assumed that the other woman (madalen I think) who had the daughters (including Christina) in the Ilegorri household was Ignacio's sister but towards the middle of the film, I began to wonder if it was his wife.
I studied this film in my Spanish film class, and heard several different versions from our texts, and even our professor didn't know. Either Peru are brother and sister or are cousins; either way, they ARE keeping it in the family.
sharethe firts letter peru write to cristina
01:03:07 "pero esta carta escribe todavia nostro padre"
nostro padre = our father
bro and sis
also, in the beginning you can tell that christina is the granddaughter of the old man, and ignacio is the old man's son. i think madelen is ignacio's first wife and daughter-in-law of old man (the grandpa) because of her hatred for him, calling him an old fool and a coward. in that scene she seems to be saying it to her father-inlaw.
shareStep-siblings. They share Ignacio as their father, but Cristina is Madalen's daughter and Peru is Catalina's.
shareYeah, but this isn't a very unnatural thing during that time period like it is now, or at least that is from my understanding.
shareThat doesn't make them step-siblings. It makes them half-brothers. Step-siblings are brothers or sisters unrelated by blood. If someone's single mother marries a single father, then their children are step-brothers.
shareIn any case, the relation is platonic as they both die before having any chance to consummate it. (Cristina hit by a stray bullet at the forest and Peru shot shortly after, presumibly by his own uncle.) The ending scene with they meeting in the forest and then riding together happens in afterlife. (Hints: Cristina says that she has seen grandpa and Peru replies that he has seen him too, and shortly after start riding the horse Cristina says they have arrived it, which would be unlikely had they been alive, as their final destination was France.)
share