Mom sleeping with an older guy?

The film never shows the mother madly in love with the older Argentinean gentleman but they are lovers and in the end they are living together while the father is living in Europe.

Although it is not clearly explained, the mother's attraction for this older man could have related in part to material security. He was wealthy and had items that during the Allende years could only be obtained in the black market. Although the family lives in an upper middle clsss neighborhood and the children attend private schools attended by upper class and middle upper class students, the family's financial status is not a very good one and the father leaves for Europe when he gets a better job. Meanwhile, the older lover can keep the mother living in the style she desires.

Chile is a classist country and these strong class divisions have created an ingrained arribisme in the fabric of society. It is typical for individuals in the middle and upper middle classes to aspire to become upper class, so the Argentinean lover was a perfect vehicle to this woman's "arribismo."

Also, at that time among the conservative middle and upper strata, annulation of marriage and separation were not considered proper (there was no divorce). Historically, wealthier married men were notorious for enjoying the sexual favors of other women, often from a class lower than theirs, but their families always maintained a facade of propriety. In the movie, the situation is reversed and the mother has a rich lover. The husband knows it but chooses to ignore it for the sake of the family and saving face and eventually leaves.

I grew up in Santiago's "barrio alto" and, although I left the country before Allende was elected, this film amazed me with its accurate portrait of characters and social dynamics, which I had also witnessed.