Opposites

When five young friends are asked what it means when a person is your “polar opposite,” they all know it’s someone very different from them. Mayra, Precious, Hanna, Esmee and Aya all come up with ideas about what kinds of people are least like them: someone who lives in a village, someone who’s really spoiled, a lazy racist, or someone who likes vegetables and is a good cook. Eleven-year-old Mayra thinks her personal polar opposite is a criminal who has no contact with his family and hates hamsters. The very next moment, the camera crew is at the door of Silas, a former convict, and we see Mayra timidly entering his house. Will her ideas about people like Silas survive the encounter? When he starts talking about his life, it quickly becomes clear that there were good reasons for him going off the straight and narrow. Unlike Mayra, he never had anyone to fall back on. And although Mayra still thinks Silas is her polar opposite, she can see that he’s very kind to his pet snake. He also draws really well and serves delicious ice cream. This cinematic experiment helps Mayra and her friends find out that it’s possible to learn from someone who’s totally different from you.