The Brazilian film Gabriella took place in a time when they were in political and social transition. The film begins with a group of people who had been wandering without food or water for days. Brazil was suffering from a famine and many people were out of work. Gabriella was a young single woman of the peasant class who was looking for work at the slave market in the local town. Nacib, a local bar owner, was there to hire a woman to cook for this bar and finds Gabriella. She later would become his mistress then his wife. He attempts to define her lifestyle through money, clothes, and refined society. With the arrival of an international ship in the local port was a symbol of a coming of a new modern era.
The beginning scenes of the movie show a crime scene of a murdered man and woman caught in the act of adultery. During this time in Latin American countries woman were to be completely submissive to their husbands. According to Susan Besse, women caught in adultery were often murdered during this time in Latin America. Women were seen as property of their husbands, fathers, and brothers. It was not often that men were punished for sexual crimes against women. It took time for women go gain the rights similar to men. At the end of Gabriela, the colonel was sent to prison for killing his wife and it was the early signs of women gaining their rights.
Gender roles were very defined during the time of Gabriella; they had little to no role in society unless they were married. Women were to be seen with their husbands but to not really make a stance on their own. Sueann Caufield reflected on the two types of women in society those who were deceit and those who were not. Women were either prostitutes corrupting society and morally sound woman who were very virtuous and submissive. In Gabriela, Nacib did not like when Gabriela would come to the bar because of the way the men would look at her. Just with their eyes on her the men could make her seem immoral. To be seen as an immoral woman was just as bad as having the plague because they believed that they infected society. Men during this time believed that woman needed to be controlled to keep society on track to becoming more refined and like Europe.
The way in which women were viewed and treated during this time was detrimental to society and the female gender that still hold repercussions to this day. Although woman have gotten more rights they are still not seen in the same light as men. People will often turn a blind eye to a woman who is being manipulated and used by men in society. Sex trafficking and drug trafficking is a prime example of this because it is usually the woman doing the more “visible” crimes while their bosses or men that control them are behind the scenes. Prosecuting people in these circumstances usually only end up to be the just women who are caught in the act and never really trickle up to the men who are running the show. Although the roles of women have improved it is still not up to par in which it should be.
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