Chronology of events in Erika's life? (SPOILERS)
I'm confused about what happened when in the chronology of Erika's life.
When was Erika lost in the African jungle? That is, how old was she when this happened? Was she a toddler? Did she never learn human language? How old was she when she was found?
When she was brought to Spain by the missionary couple, she seemed pretty civilized. In the scene where Dimas is shooting her parents, she looks like any normal child.
Were these parents her biological parents or adoptive parents? If adoptive, when did they adopt her?
When did she go into the orphanage? After her parents were killed? That makes the most sense, I'm just trying to establish a timeline. I guess then she escaped from the orphanage and was living in the woods near the house where she'd lived with the German parents. But for how long?
Some of this just doesn't add up. In the current day, she seems to be maybe 8 years old. How long did she live with the German couple? If it had been even a few years, that means she wasn't lost in the jungle for very many years. If she was found early enough in her life, the effects of having lived with animals might have been reversible - she was still young enough to learn language, for example. Most feral children who are/were unable to be civilized had already aged too long and would never fit in to society. The film implies that the same is true for Erika, but it doesn't seem like she was lost for very long.
Erika also doesn't seem to have aged much since her parents died. You see her standing in the doorway, looking about 8 years old, maybe (I'm not a good judge of children's age). It's hard to tell how old she is in the current time of Santi and his mom living in the village, but she seems like the same age. Did all that happen - her going to the orphanage, then escaping and going totally feral again - in a very short time? I wonder how long that house was empty (between the Germans and Santi/mom occupying it)?