Set in a remote Peruvian village, Claudia Llosa's debut feature, Madeinusa, is a modern-day fable that follows a naïve 14-year-old — Madeinusa, pronounced "Ma-den-OO-za" — who lives in a dirt floor house with her younger sister and lecherous father, and dreams of escaping her bleak reality. During the village's annual tiempo santo ("holy time") celebrations, sin does not exist from three in the afternoon on Good Friday (when Christ died on the cross) through Easter Sunday. In sum, God is dead and the village folk can do whatever they please because God is not watching or judging them. Madeinusa's father plans on celebrating tiempo santo by taking his older daughter's virginity, an incestuous liaison that is not regarded as a sin if conducted during the two-day observance. But the festivities are interrupted when a mining engineer from Lima unexpectedly arrives in the village and finds himself drawn into Madinusa's struggles with her father. The film is screened this Monday at Tampa Theatre as part of Arte 2007 and in collaboration with the Ybor Festival of the Moving Image. Mon., Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m., 711 N. Franklin St., downtown Tampa, $9 adults/$8 students/$7 seniors, members and military, 813-274-8981, tampatheatre.org.
