Doña Bárbara

Bárbara was raped on a riverboat as a young woman, and after that day she pitied nobody. Over the years she came to own a great ranch on the Arauca plain, putting the land together with bribes, threats and bought verdicts. In the region they call her a witch. Then Santos Luzardo arrives from Caracas, a man who studied law and has come to claim his own inheritance. For the first time she faces someone who does not give way. And there is Marisela, Bárbara's own daughter, whom she abandoned at birth. Fernando de Fuentes directs the Mexican film; a hundred and thirty-eight minutes, with María Félix as Bárbara. It is adapted from Rómulo Gallegos's novel, and Gallegos is credited on the screenplay. The part made Félix's name, and she was called La Doña for the rest of her life.