test results


So do you think she had AIDS and that's what upset her at the clinic? Then she screwed that weird guy (the one that got her papers and beat her) and do you think she was trying to give him her disease out of anger?

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Yep. I'd agree with that. Except that she would be passing on the HIV virus not AIDS.

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I'd also agree that she was passing on HIV to her nasty 'patron'. It was quizzical, to say the least, that the director chose to leave this whole test business unanswered, and that scene just seemed to hang over the remainder of the film. Was that supposed to be a symbol of HIV itself, the 'hanging' business? If so, it didn't work. I don't like to be left dangling; it's very annoying, and even insulting. Strange choice by Fernando. I liked the film on the whole, but this omission was so glaring that I took two marks off for bad behaviour by the director.

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I don't think it was an omission. Actually I'm glad when movies leave things out for the audience to figure out. The girl fainted when she heard the test results, so obviously it was something really bad (like HIV, but not necessarily). Immediately afterwards we see her with the bad guy, so we were expecting her to grab her knife (which we saw earlier) and kill him. She didn't, so if you think about it, it becomes clear that she was trying to pass some nasty disease to him.

I'm no expert, but how high is the degree of certainty of acquiring, say, HIV, from an infected person?

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did she get HIV from the "volunteer" ???

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do you think maybe she fainted because she was so happy she didnt have something, or not a possibility...

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It is possible for a healthy man to have sex with an HIV-infected female and not receive the disease. Furthermore, for all Zulema knows, she might have received HIV from the Pig Guy in the first place! Or she may have been infected before she even met the Pig Guy. Either way, it was a waste of her time to have sex with him one last time before leaving Spain. (And it was dangerous because he could have beat her again.)

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The probability for vaginal sex transmission from female to male is actually extremely low. Among upper middle class non-needle using heterosexuals the probability of acquiring HIV is very low.

With anal sex, it is much higher. This is the reason HIV spread so quickly in the gay community in the U.S. but not among heterosexuals.

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Without the bad guy scene it was even still a possibility, that she was found pregnant. The bad guy scene made it very clear that she was desperately trying to pass on some illness, even if she stood little chance in succeeding. What other options would she have?

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Definitely. What other reason should there be?

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She definitely was ill with something, and she did that official so she could get her papers to leave. I hope she passed on whatever she had to that mofo...

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Remember this: always use condom for casual sex.

...
I'm rich and divorced

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I also liked the movie overall. However, I was disappointed that we didn't find out what her results were. It seemed to me that she may have contracted something and then wanted to screw the guy again to pass it to him. However, as someone else said maybe she was just relieved that she didn't have any nasty disease. I lean more towards the 2nd theory because I thought she would have told Caye something? Don't you think.

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Interesting. I assumed Zulema 1) most probably assumed she got HIV from exactly the 'patron' during the earlier bloody encounter, 2) then she actually did kill (strangulated) him during that sex scene. Otherwise, what would Caye's words "That type used to beat her. Until today." during the last family meal mean? (well, I only could view it with French subtitles, so this translation is not accurate)

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[deleted]

I assumed she just meant 'until today' because Zulema was going home. If she was going to just strangle him, she'd have done it BEFORE screwing him. The whole point of the screwing was to pass on the disease - that's why she was trying to do it roughly.

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i think she found out she'd been infected with HIV - but i think there was a whole lot going on in the sex scene and it could be interpeted in different ways.

i think there probably was an element of wanting to pass on the disease to this man - but i also thought it was an outlet for feelings such as rage and despair - that's part of what i saw on her face - i also thought it included an element of her expressing her power/her true self - she let him treat her badly before because she needed something from him, not because she was weak and submissive - now she no longer needed anything from him she was letting him know that she could be powerful too.

those are some of the things i got out of it - i thought it was a very powerful scene.

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