The plot focuses on Elena, who is suffering from Parkinson’s Disease and is in need of full-time care to spend her life. This duty comes on Rita’s shoulder, her daughter. But Rita has her own issues to handle, as we see in the movie’s runtime of 90 minutes.
Most of the time, we see Elena and her restless actions as she tries to find out what actually happened to Rita. The cops looked in a rush to close the case, but there was no autopsy report or paperwork. Elena senses that something shady is going on and sets out to seek the truth.
As the plot moves forward, Elena’s journey is met with past flashes that are well constructed, with an aged Elena watching her daughter in the same frame.
These scenes range from Rita’s childhood to the time of her death. We learn that Rita is not a straightforward girl. She had ties with Isabel, her best friend, and Father Juan, her boyfriend.
The movie is not transparent about who did it, and it gives you a few suspects to move the story forward. People who were in and out of the plot share their perspectives and statements about what actually happened to Rita.
What does Elena learn from Benegas?
Her body continues to degrade because of Parkinson’s as the movie moves forward. She goes to one doorstep to another to get justice for her daughter. These cops have ignored this case, but with the help of one cop, she finds out that Benegas was her daughter’s doctor, so she goes to Benegas.
Benegas admits that he was prescribing antidepressants to her daughter. Rita was heavy on the weight as she had to take care of her mother. It was a big commitment for her. Rita was totally struggling and was near her breakpoint while discussing it with Dr. Benegas.
What does Juan testify to Elena?
After this, she goes to see Juan to find out what happened. It turns out Rita was already dead when he got there. She hung herself from the church rafters.
Juan prayed for her and did not touch the body, but Elena was not at all convinced of this. Elena tells him that Rita did not visit the church on rainy days; she was scared of lightning strikes on rainy days, so it doesn’t make any sense that she’d get to church on such a day.
Juan made the call to the cops and asked them to reach church after 7 pm Mass. Rita stopped coming to Mass before committing suicide, but this doesn’t stop Rita’s mother from blaming Juan.
She thinks that he fed her the dream of heaven. Juan fights back by saying that suicide is not the true path for Christians to argue his case.
Does Elena gain any closure?
Elena goes to Isabel to find out more. Rita saved Isabel in the past, so Elena believes that she is entitled to her debt. Isabel was going through her own issues, and she had a difficult childhood because of her parents, which was shown in the movie.
Isabel had a daughter who was being raised by her grandparents. This was the reason behind their rift, which led to a loss of communication. Rita fought hard for Elena; a telling flashback reveals that she actually fought to get the right prescription for Elena.
But this has a huge impact on Rita’s health, and this was unnoticed by Elena, which we saw in the first scenes of the movie when Rita went aside to cry alone.
After learning all this, she got closure. She almost held Isabel’s hand, but she wanted to go back to her home.
What actually happened to Rita?
The ending sees Rita’s mother get out of the taxi, drop her umbrella, and go back to her apartment. This scene is symbolic, as now Elena also believes that Rita was not murdered but committed suicide.
Rita was weighed down by the pressure of taking care of her mother and seeing her health deteriorate further. Given that Rita was herself in depression, she took the hard step of suicide.
In the end, the movie tells us the huge toll of mental health on our minds if not taken care of at the time. Elena also gets the closure she needs, but how she will continue without her daughter, given her condition, is a question that is open.
