‘It was a very well-kept secret.’
What does it mean to heal from a lifelong betrayal? And what’s the purpose of forgiving someone who’s gone? In the poignant documentary Sana Que Sana (a Spanish idiom that, loosely translated, means ‘feel better’), these questions are explored through intimate conversations between the Colombian-American filmmaker Gabriella Aguirre and her grandmother Sefora Gomez, who, late in life, discovered that her husband had a secret second family. As he was deep in dementia when she learned of his double life, Gomez was unable to confront him, and had to grapple alone with many lingering questions that could never be answered.
Strikingly captured on 16mm and 35mm film, the documentary follows Gomez in the lush Columbian countryside as she moves through daily rituals and reflects on her life, marriage and difficult choices. As Aguirre and her grandmother discuss changing beauty standards and the complexity of romance, another fascinating theme emerges: how women’s expectations – of others and of themselves – have shifted across generations of the same family.