Can compassionate sex heal?
    By Franklin W. Liu

     A satirical foreign feature film tells the inverted tale of a dowdy, middle-aged, saintly woman who at the urging of village wives, has sex with their husbands.
     Her reluctant acts of selfless, purposeful compassionate sex ironically turn miracles; healing the sick, restoring community harmony and creating hope for a desolate Mexican village.  But are things what they seem to be?   

     This year, 2000 award-winning comedy, “Sexo Por Compasion” livens talk on the ethical and moral contradictions we frequently face in life.
     Director Laura Mana’s treatment of a core theme of human existence is semiotic and structurally honest. She resists from pandering to farce. 
     The camera pans with symbolic, stark black and white images; we see dusty, narrow, barren, cobblestone village streets. The lens meanders up to a doorway showing Delores, a plump woman in her mid-forties, emerging sobbing, watching her husband, Manolo, leading a package-laden donkey slowly out of town under a scorching sun.
     Sweaty and fed up, without once looking back at his wife, he mutters harshly, “I can’t take it anymore. I’m out of this awful town.”
     One by one, villagers appear like ghosts from behind their doors. Each
one peering, feeling the pain of abandonment of a woman whose generous
deeds to everyone in the community are legendary; everyone in the village treasures her saintly nature.
     Seized with guilt for Manolo leaving, Delores goes to confession but the flustered priest can only tell her that he cannot absolve her of sins she had not committed.
     She wonders if God is simply testing her selflessness and her compassion toward others.
     Back in town, Delores stops to visit a frail, bed-ridden old woman, Leocadia, who is tearful and fearful that she will die if Delores stops visiting her. For ten years, they follow a routine of looking at a photo album as Leocadia reminisces, “All women are beautiful when they fall in love.”
     Delores listens to the lament that now there is no romance in this town,
but perhaps, someday things would change.
     Walking down the street, Delores hears incessant bickering coming from every household.
     She stops for a daily visit to see Candida, a little girl who has been mute since seeing her father, Mayor Christobal, hang himself from a tree. The girl and Delores sit side by side, quietly flipping through the pages of a picture storybook. Neither one felt the need to speak.
     To relieve Delores of loneliness, Floren invites her to come live in a spare room at the village bar she runs.
     Delores accepts and reflects on her new life without Manolo. She ponders what life will be like without love. If only there’s something she could do to bring Manolo back. His last words to her were that he felt suffocated by her goodness.
     But unexpected turns in life can change everything as a despondent
stranger staggers into Floren’s Bar. He pours his heart out that life is no longer worth living because his wife left him for the love of another man.
     Touched by this man’s agony and trying to ease his pain, Delores explains that he cannot accept his wife’s infidelity because he himself has never  cheated on her. He has no understanding of her transgression thus no way to forgive her.
     Delores then inexplicably takes this man’s hand and leads him into her room. Soft whispers followed as moments pass, when the bedroom door swings open, Delores is seen buttoning up her blouse and the man is zipping up his pants. Both glisten. Delores told the man her name is “Lolita.”
     The man says now he understands what she meant that life might be imperfect. He’s determined to reconcile with his wife, to love her even more
from this day on. The stranger was grateful to Delores for saving his marriage and, in deed, for saving his life.
     After the man left, Delores falls on her knees in shameful remorse at what she had just done. Floren consoles her, pointing out it was an act of compassion just like countless other acts of selflessness she has shown others in the past.
     Delores remains conflicted and was completely repulsed when another despondent man approached her. Rejecting him outright and riled by the lack of respect, Delores halts her kindness and all generosity towards others. She even stops her regular visits to the dying old woman and the mute girl. 
     A week passed, Candida, the mute girl suddenly cried out Delores’ name  and started talking again. Infirmed old Leocadia walks after years of being bed-ridden. Sightings of other miracles begin trickling-in from all over town.
     The women of the village appreciated the change, seeing their men turned into more attentive and loving husbands; the wives credit Delores for this improvement in their marriage.
     When a man whom Delores had rejected earlier was carried in–comatose, from attempting suicide–into Floren’s Bar, Delores took pity on him.   
     Reviving him, she heals him in her room.
     The man comes out disheveled but converted, vowing to dedicate the rest of his life to help others in need. He declares Lolita a living saint.
     Delores decided to resume her compassionate love to other men. In the ensuing week, all the men in the village, young and old, skinny and fat, clean or putrid, start to line up at Floren’s Bar.
     Lolita heals them all, one by one. An old, nearly blind guy even regained
his eyesight. Other men came forward with requests to be healed of different
ills; including the ill of procrastination.
     The film at this point changes from black and white into Technicolor showing the village infused with new life. An example can be found in images as flowers blossom in outside  window planter-boxes as love blooms inside for people living there.
     Everyone is dressing up in finery, houses are painted in cheerful colors as sprightful laughter echoes everywhere.
     Even the run-down church was being restored with money from donations.
It seems the whole town was brimming with generosity and the community erupts in a symphony of love.
     Meanwhile, the line continues to form at Floren’s Bar.
     The word on Lolita’s miracles soon spread far and wide. Men from neighboring towns traveled for days to get in line at Floren’s Bar. There was no end in sight to miracles Lolita performed.
     Peace was finally shattered one day when nearby town’s prostitutes cried hardship because Lolita does not charge men for her miracles.
     With their madame leading the way, a gang of prostitutes visited Lolita to plead with her to charge the men she heals. They pointed out she could always give the money away to charity and that this act of goodwill would preserve their livelihood which they need to provide for their children.
     The exchange of money for love, even out of compassion, ruined everything. Love is now debased by an attached value and other expectations.    
     The men continued to reason that they were harming no one; the women begin to have doubts and regrets for the trade-off improvement in their men. This confusion sparked lively debates on issues on the quality of life and the notion of love. And what of Goodness and Compassion?
     Delores’ character and true motive were directly questioned: Is she a saint or just a whore?  Confused villagers split into opposing factions. 
     Delores’ husband, Manolo suddenly returns to town. He and Delores
joyfully reunite as she tells him what happened in his absence. She adds,
“It’s so easy to be good when people give you a reason to be.” 
     But now she and the whole town are in a state of u
proar and no one knows what will come next.
     “Sexo Por Compasion” packs a few more surprising reversals. No spoiler ending shall be divulged here. DVD and videotape of the film are widely available at your local video store and online.
     The theme of “perception as reality” is a most interesting one to grapple with in drama and in literature. Some swear that life is comprised of many shades of grays and reality is often of our own choosing.
     Does anybody want to sit with me for a cup of tea and talk about this?