Madeinusa’s mother is said to have fled to Lima at some point in the past for unknown reasons. During tiempo santo people, in the temporary absence of supreme oversight, give in to excesses of all kinds, some are harmless enough like eating and dancing while others are darker and more sordid in nature, like the sexual abuse that Madeinusa suffers at her father’s hands. Incest is not only presented as one more of those excesses or as a signifier for the barbaric character of a society left to its own devices. Rather, as I will argue, incest here is used to recall the state of anomie that became accepted as commonplace throughout the duration of the internal armed conflict. But Madeinusa is hardly alone in this: Josué Méndez’s 2008 release Dioses (Gods) is a satire in which Diego, the youngest child of an upper crust Lima family, feels attracted to his older sister, Andrea. Additionally, in his previous film, Días de Santiago (Days of Santiago), Méndez had already explored incest although much less prominently than in Dioses: the father of Santiago, the main character, in the end is revealed to be sexually abusive toward his youngest
Madeinusa’s mother is said to have fled to Lima at some point in the past for unknown reasons. During tiempo santo people, in the temporary absence of supreme oversight, give in to excesses of all kinds, some are harmless enough like eating and dancing while others are darker and more sordid in nature, like the sexual abuse that Madeinusa suffers at her father’s hands. Incest is not only presented as one more of those excesses or as a signifier for the barbaric character of a society left to its own devices. Rather, as I will argue, incest here is used to recall the state of anomie that became accepted as commonplace throughout the duration of the internal armed conflict. But Madeinusa is hardly alone in this: Josué Méndez’s 2008 release Dioses (Gods) is a satire in which Diego, the youngest child of an upper crust Lima family, feels attracted to his older sister, Andrea. Additionally, in his previous film, Días de Santiago (Days of Santiago), Méndez had already explored incest although much less prominently than in Dioses: the father of Santiago, the main character, in the end is revealed to be sexually abusive toward his youngest