Eréndira (film)

The original script actually preceded his novella The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Eréndira and Her Heartless Grandmother published in 1972.

[2] Guerra incorporated elements from another Garcia Marquez story ("Death Constant Beyond Love") to meet his narrative needs in the subplot of Senator Onésimo Sanchez.

[5] Eréndira, a teenaged girl, lives with her eccentric, heartless grandmother in a vast, gloomy house in a windswept desert region.

The grandmother lives in her own world, talking to herself, crying uncontrollably over sentimental French songs, and acting out wild dreams while she sleeps.

Having calculated the debt Eréndira owes her for the destruction of her home and belongings, the grandmother decides the only way the girl will be able to repay such a vast amount is through prostitution.

Eréndira and her grandmother subsequently travel through the desert while the young girl sells her body to countless men – peasants, Indians, humble workers, soldiers and smugglers that populate the region.

As the business prospers it achieves carnivalesque proportions: the two women are joined by hangers-on, vendors, musicians, and a mysterious photographer.

One day, having had sex with an army of soldiers, Eréndira falls sick and the line of men waiting outside her tent is dismissed.

En route from one town to the next, a group of monks abduct Eréndira, in an attempt to save her from her grandmother's predations.

To undermine any further attempts by the priests to confiscate her money-making resource, the grandmother schemes to obtain a letter from someone important testifying to her granddaughter's high moral character.