The film by Mexican director Mariano Barroso In the time of the Butterflies, revealed the story of the life, struggle, and tragic death of the national heroines of the Dominican Republic, the Mirabal sisters. The confrontation of three young women against the totalitarian regime of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo became the fundamental idea of the film. The film describes the entire life of the sisters, their rebirth from provincial girls into heroines of national resistance, and it still reflects the pathos, tragedy, and greatness of the struggle for freedom. The film reveals many issues but especially vividly demonstrates the abuse of women, including the Mirabal sisters.
Minerva, Patria, and Maria-Teresa Mirabel spent a relatively measured childhood and youth. Butterflies, as their friends called them, were used to an easy life: social events and receptions, incendiary dances, expensive outfits, and friends from the very top of society. Even the megalomaniac Dominican dictator General Trujillo, a cruel and oppressive man, could not resist the charms of one of them. After graduating from high school, Minerva and Maria Teresa continued their education at the university, where their political career began. They became activists and symbols of resistance against the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. Together with her husbands, the girls, despite numerous arrests and persecution, continued to fight against the dictator’s regime until their death.
The main character of the film is one of the sisters – Minerva. The audience is shown what Minerva goes through during her short and bright life. The meanness and vileness of the regime, which puts not only her family under pressure but also the families of hundreds of thousands of other Dominicans, does not leave her a chance to dissolve into fear and oppression. The sisters draw Minera’s attention to the fact that Trujillo ordered the killing of all revolutionaries (Barroso). Her struggle and death will be the starting point in the fall of the Hefe regime, which outlived the sisters by only a year and did not get a chance to die of old age, as some tyrants managed to die.
Dede is also one of Mirabelle’s sisters who is less confident in the power of the revolution than her sisters. It is being said: “But without a plan, Dedé’s courage unraveled like a row of stitches not finished with a good, sturdy knot (Barosso). She did not seek to join the revolution because she was afraid that death would follow. Still, she is in constant fear for her sisters and that they will be killed. In the end, it is the Uncle who remains alive, and the rest of the sisters are killed. The film also features another sister Maria Teresa, who marries Leandro and joins the revolution to be worthy of her husband. The elder sister Patria is a symbol of religiosity and also one of the participants in the revolutionary movement. She creates a religious group that merges with her sister Minerva’s revolutionary group.
Dictator Rafael Trujillo is the main antagonist of the novel and the self-proclaimed dictator of the Dominican Republic. He demands complete submission, and if someone cannot show it, he applies cruel punishments. The dictator commits many unjust acts against his people. He bombed a boat with ninety-three passengers on board, and the other sixty-seven were caught and also killed (Barroso). Concerning women, he is shown as a particularly cruel person and a rapist. He keeps young women in homes that are located all over the country. In the end, he becomes even more angry and cruel towards the Mirabal sisters, whom he kills as a result of the fact that they have shown themselves to be strong oppositionists to his power.
In conclusion, the film In the time of the Butterflies is a story based on actual events of the revolutionary time in the Dominican Republic during the reign of the brutal dictator Trujillo. The film raises many problems, but one of the main ones is cruelty toward women. The main characters are the Mirabal sisters, who are women revolutionaries fighting for rights and against the brutal power of dictator Trujillo. He, in turn, is shown as an evil and cruel murderer and rapist who eventually brutally kills the Mirabal sisters, who have gained strong power in the revolutionary field.
Work Cited
Barroso, Mariano, director. In the time of the Butterflies. Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 2001.