Directed by Hugo Prata, the Brazilian real-life drama Angela is a mixture of overwhelming passionate love and extreme violence that leads to a fatal outcome. The drama follows a famous Brazilian socialite, Angela Maria Fernandes Diniz, who was murdered by her lover, Raul Fernandes do Amaral Street, at her beach house. The narrative is all about Angela’s controversial personal life and her conflicted relationships, which never let her have a moment of respite.
Spoilers Ahead
Plot Synopsis: What Is The Film About?
After getting divorced from her ex-husband, Angela began to live her life on her own terms. Her past nine years of married life hadn’t been blissful, as her husband accused her of kidnapping her own daughter. She had three children with her ex-husband, but due to the accusations of doing drugs and the kidnapping, she didn’t get custody of her children. Her mother sometimes brought the three of them to the church to meet with Angela, but that temporary meeting made her even more sad. She started dating a gossip journalist, Ibrahim Sued, but it was not a serious relationship with commitments. During this time, Angela started living afresh and meeting new people, until one day at a bar, she met Raul, who was married to a rich woman named Adelita.
Adelita befriended Angela, asking her if she needed help in the case of taking custody of her children. But Angela, who wanted to have some fun at the bar, didn’t want to discuss these things. She didn’t even like Adelita, who implied that she truly believed Angela had kidnapped her child. Angela ignored Adelita, but her fondness for Raul began to escalate, and they ended up sleeping with each other. Raul, in the meantime, was having severe issues in his business, witnessing his life and career falling apart. Amidst all this, he fell madly in love with Angela, which prompted him to finally leave his family and settle down with her.
Why Was Angela Relieved About Her Miscarriage?
During this time, Angela bought a beach house at Praia dos Ossos, Rio de Janeiro, where she spent a lot of money on the renovation of the house. As Angela and Raul’s passionate love continued to grow, some jealousy and possessiveness began to escalate. While Angela was a free soul and wanted to live her life on her own terms, Raul wanted her to be more submissive. While Angela wanted to dress as she pleased, Raul wanted her to dress according to his whims, which was really disrespectful to Angela. But surprisingly, she didn’t want to hurt Raul’s feelings. Even though Raul picked the fight every time, it was Angela who came to apologize and mend their relationship. But her submissiveness prompted Raul to believe he had some authority over her.
When Angela arrived at her beach house, her friend Toia disclosed to her that she wanted to date a boy behind her husband’s back. During this time, Lily, a young girl working at Angela’s beach house as a maid, quit at first, dissatisfied with Angela’s rude behavior. Angela later apologized to her and managed to convince her to come back to work. One day, after Angela became pregnant with Raul, he had to go out on an urgent errand. He strictly wanted Toia to take care of Angela, but Toia spent the night with the other man, which Angela allowed her to do. However, Angela, to have some fun that night, went to a party that Lily also attended. After drinking heavily all night, Angela learned in the morning that she had miscarried. But she wasn’t sad about it; instead, she was relieved that she wouldn’t have to raise a child with a toxic man like Raul. However, the next morning, when Raul learned that Angela had been alone the night before, he suspected that she might have gone out drinking alone with a man, leading to another violent argument between them.
Why Did Raul Shoot Angela?
Raul’s violent nature drove him to escalate things to the point that he started hitting her. Not only with Angela, but he also acted violently against Lily over some minor inconvenience, which angered Angela and broke her heart. She realized she had fallen in love with the wrong person, who was immensely violent and even capable of killing her. She finally made the decision to say goodbye to Raul, asking him to leave her house and take whatever he wanted. But Raul, in the hold of toxic masculinity, decided Angela’s fate. He thought if Angela couldn’t be his, she couldn’t be anyone else’s. Raul returned to Angela, pleading with her to give him another chance, but Angela had made up her mind. In a fit of rage, Raul pulled a gun out of his briefcase and shot her to death. She was shot four times: thrice in her face and once in the back of her neck.
However, a more gruesome truth was revealed at the end of the film, when viewers were told how Raul Fernandes do Amaral Street was symbolically sentenced to two years in prison because his defense lawyer said the man shot Angela in self-defense. The verdict subsequently prompted the protest of feminists who raised their voices against this injustice, and a public prosecutor appealed to the court, which sentenced Raúl to another 15 years in prison and dropped his argument of defense of honor.
Final Words
Angela is a drama that highlights the tragic reality of domestic violence. It is not a romantic film that gives you butterflies, but it shows the dire consequences of us blindly trusting someone and handing over our authority to them. Although Angela may never be brought back alive, Raul’s prison sentence felt too short. Raul might have confessed his crime, but initially, he believed he would be able to get away with the crime by pointing out Angela as a temptress and unfaithful partner, but that didn’t happen. The case gained widespread notoriety in 1976, but still, decades later, Angela’s story feels relevant because our society hasn’t changed yet. Despite so many successful feminist movements, a woman can still be criticized for the number of relationships she has. Her character and chastity can be questioned even though she is a victim, not a perpetrator.
