I liked the movie even though it was slightly overlong, but a little more background would have been interesting. This devouted Catholic woman comes home to find a muslim man in her apartment and he turns out to have been her husband? He also seemed surprised to find all the religious symbols at her place. A relationship between these two seemed bizarre to say the least.
shareA relationship between these two seemed bizarre to say the least
It was not bizarre. Based upon her Husband's abusive behavior, one can imagine that Anna became physiologically damaged and converted to Catholicism as an escape. Anna's love for Jesus at times was shown to be sexual. Therefore Anna became a Catholic partly due to her sexual attraction to Jesus, seeing him as a man filled with love rather than hate.
I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.
Her muslim husband was obviously involved in some sort of accident. I'm guessing before the events in the film they had a reletavly normal life. Neither of them would have been as devoutly religious to the point where their confliciting religions became a major problem in their relationship as they seem to have accepted this before they got married. The apparence/removal of religious items in the house seems to have been a new problem.
I think the idea here is to show how religion preys on the most vunerable. The husbands accident obviously traumatised Anna, she probably didn't know if he was going to survive and she did what most catholics do in crisis - she began praying and I'm also assuming she was approached by the catholic group and starts believing she has to turn her life into a sacrifice for god. She also approaches strangers houses very arrogantly and forcefully and I doubt this would have occurred out of greif but probably something she learned from her other religious peers in the film.
Judging by her behaiviour and actions she is very obviously sexually repressed and has a lot of mental problems. It contributed to her falling into this trap and feeling like she has to physically punish herself. People in a healthy state of mind would most likely not engage in self harm.
I think we learn a good amount about their backstory, well at least Anna's. They are both very troubled, but seemed to have a normal marriage. Her husband had an accident. She had a hard time coping with this and sought comfort through the bible as a means to help her deal with her sick husband and manifest her sexual repression and mental problems. He obviously loved her before because he returned to her hoping she would appreciate the surprise.
I addition to the strange marriage, I was also somewhat surprised at the house. Was that big 2 storied house supposed to be her private house? Or did it belong to a church or some organization? If that was indeed a private house (we are given no clear evidence on the contrary), then how could she afford it on nurse's salary?
shareAnna wasn't a nurse; she was a radiology technician. Those people are well-paid in the States. I got the impression that her house was in a condo complex. If you recall, she did not have a backyard of her own.
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