Linda (Argentina)

The eponymous maid (played by Eugenia “China” Suárez) in Linda, Mariana Wainstein’s first feature, takes a job as a domestic worker for a wealthy Argentine family while her cousin is recovering from an accident. Slowly, each member of the family — the adolescent son and daughter, the mother, and the father — is upended by Linda’s beauty, each responding in a distinctly shocking and laughable way. An elegant home, stocked with fine wines that the family members are obsessed with, serves as the location for a pointed commentary on class, power, and the disconcerting nature of the male gaze. Director Wainstein pays close attention to the subtleties of behavior: a sniff of perfume, a touch of a hand, a suggestive conversation. And she trusts the audience to pick up on clues and make their own judgments. Linda’s undefined intentions (and meager backstory) draw us deeper into the mystery of her motives and as well as the family’s peccadillos. The well-off are not portrayed as oppressors, but as privileged bourgeoisie frustrated by repressed sexual desire. They allow Linda to wear street clothes rather than a maid’s uniform and, for a time, patient with her unwillingness to conform to the standard restrictions of her role. Linda, about whom we know little until the very end, dutifully goes about her chores, ignoring the family’s erotic overtures with cold indifference – until she doesn’t.