Everyone feels the pain and the glory of being what they are

In “Regra 34”, Júlia Murat takes the risk of bringing to the screen the power relations, which bring into being two prisoners (dominator and dominated) incarcerated in their pre-defined roles and constituted by rules that stabilize their positions. On the one hand, we have Simone (Sol Miranda), a young black law graduate, who has paid for her university course by selling sexual performances online. She is on the brink of fulfilling her greatest ambition by passing the entry contest for Public Defender to fight for ill-treated black women, victims of domestic violence.

However, her success is threatened when a friend introduces her to sadomasochistic practices. After her initial refusal and disgust, she begins to follow these practices, assuming the position of the dominated. On the other hand, there is a faceless dominator, who interacts with her, satisfying his sexual appetite watching Simone’s auto-flagellation as she submits to his impositions despite her feeling of repulsion.

The narrative includes testimonies of the victims of violence, who denounce the acts, but remain with their partners, sustaining the relationships of domination. While Simone fights to overcome the relationships of power at work, in private she takes on the role of the dominated and undertakes all the impositions that sadomasochistic practice demands. For example, before materializing the act of sodomy she seeks an agreement, negotiateing sums of money with her dominator which are a mere pretext for maintaining their roles.

Throughout the film, I searched for evidence referring to traumas, which could have led her to sadistic behaviour. However, I found nothing referring to past experiences, Simone’s childhood memories, which could have materialised into this adult behaviour. However, the perceptible social influence, her position as a black woman, the submissive relationship imposed by society may have reinforced the sadistic or masochistic aspects.

On the other hand the dominator is an unknown, anonymous character, who interacts only through text and audio messages. If we analyse the subtext we could say that the dominator is society, personified in this faceless man, who could be any of the masculine characters in the film, even Simone’s professor (my guess).