Oyanka Cabezas' character was never in doubt as the film unwound; she was completely believable. Indeed the film took us on a journey from a care-fee bus driver in Glascow (Robert Carlyle - "The Full Monty") to the CIA-operated civil war in Nicaragua where Cabezas seeks her former lover who has been brutalized by the CONTRAS. Loach did a masterful job capturing the atmosphere of that bleak episode. He allows us to catch a glimpse of what changes would or may occur in humans if given the opportunity to escape poverty and ignorance. But the forces that would maintain the staus quo are far too powerful to allow the Nicaraguans to reach that goal. If only we could understand Carlyle's English; the easiest for me to comprehend what he was saying was when he was speaking with Cabezas, whose English was halting, yet understandable. If only Carlyle did not drive that bus in Nicaragua - - - somehow I knew that was meant to be.
Review of Carla's Song
