El rebozo de Soledad (Soledad’s Shawl). 1952. Mexico. Directed by Roberto Gavaldón. Screenplay by Javier López Ferrer, José Revueltas, Roberto Gavaldón. With Arturo de Córdova, Pedro Armendáriz, Stella Inda. In Spanish; English subtitles. 108 min.
Arturo de Córdova, the tortured embodiment of Mexico’s urban modernism, meets Pedro Armendáriz, the heroic representative of Mexico’s romanticized rural feudalism, in this rich melodrama centered directly on the structuring contradiction of Gavaldón’s work. A medical researcher from Mexico City becomes emotionally involved with the people of the small village he is visiting for his work—and more particularly with Soledad (Stella Inda of Los Olvidados), an indigenous woman who becomes his nurse. The film was Gavaldón’s first collaboration with Mexico’s internationally influential cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa.