The film Cracks (English: Cracks, 2009, directed by Jordan Scott, based on Sheila Kohler's novel of the same name) offers us an excellent and concise sketch of what the soul becomes when raised and forced to survive under certain conditions. The film introduces us to the lifestyle of a school for teenage girls—a place designed like a women's monastery, painfully reminiscent of an orphanage or boarding school. This "sanatorium" is located far in the mountains, presumably on a deserted island. Though outwardly quite respectable, it is equally cold, gloomy, and harsh. Its inhabitants are an exclusively female community. One might assume this film is a story about envy and its transformations, or perhaps about the specifics of mother-daughter relationships—relationships stripped of the father as a third party or opposite sex figure interacting with these same-sex individuals—daughters and mothers. Thus, it is a film about violations or fundamental distortions in family structure, or even the absence of parents altogether. Since the parental figures in the film are represented by teachers and mentors, in a psychoanalytic context, they are associated with images of phallic women—powerful, cold, and narcissistic.
The story focuses on the relationships within a group of girls who call themselves a team and their beloved teacher, whose stories they eagerly listen to. She is their idol, an ideal, and, as it were, a bridge to their own femininity and future. She teaches them swimming and diving, which is quite symbolic if we consider that water symbolizes the mother, while flying and diving represent various narcissistic realizations. The teacher, whom everyone calls Miss G, instructs the girls almost exclusively in ideals—how to be free, ambitious, and likely independent of others, self-sufficient. Although the connection to God and religion runs subtly throughout the film, and female sexuality and attraction to the opposite sex develop naturally, the secret hatred and envy toward the father figure and everything symbolizing a real home are also evident. This becomes especially clear when a new student named Fiam arrives at the school. Everyone believes she comes from an aristocratic family. She considers herself superior to the others and indeed stands out with her advanced development and refined skills. Fiam is in no hurry to become part of the group, as for a long time she continues to indulge in the same fantasies that afflict other adolescents in similar circumstances—namely, that she will soon return to a prince or that her father will come to take her home. All the students at the school nurture such saving fantasies. Thus, envy toward the newcomer is cultivated and grows. But as becomes clear, this envy is particularly strong in the oldest of the "girls"—the teacher herself, Miss G. It turns out that she, like her students, is a former graduate of this school. All her stories about distant lands are nothing but pseudological fantasies—narcissistic illusions, dreams serving as a defense against inner emptiness, depression, and hopelessness. In reality, she has never been anywhere—not to Africa, the Nile, the Amazon, India, or Paris. She has never traveled beyond the nearby town where she habitually shops.
In a pivotal moment, the new girl, whom everyone calls the "princess," sees through this deception and tries to expose it to others. One of the most heart-wrenching scenes in the film is when we see Miss G, now a grown woman, watching as packages sent by relatives to her students are opened. Like the children, she too feels envy and a desire to steal the expensive cookies or photos of Paris and Rome she has never seen. Her soul is further exposed and revealed in all its infantile depression, distress, longing, and emptiness when the main heroine, the "princess," tells her that her girls will leave her anyway. At first, Miss G cries, but then something akin to a psychotic breakdown occurs—a compulsive neurosis bordering on paranoia. Her personality shuts down and likely begins to unravel. To avoid losing herself and succumbing to panic, she uncontrollably and compulsively repeats the same words, perhaps trying to control her emotions and depression.
The rift that follows can only be healed by love. Of course, this is the teacher’s homosexual love for her student, as she is unfamiliar with any other form of love. This love begins from the very start and likely masks her hatred and envy. The traits of narcissistic infatuation, or more precisely, exploitation, are brilliantly demonstrated in the film. The essence of narcissistic love lies in exchanging roles and, as it were, identities, placing oneself in the other’s position and vice versa—appropriating (stealing) all the valuable traits of the other. Such an exchange with another person occurs in the subject’s unconscious fantasy. The blurring of genders, generations, and boundaries between the self and the object serves as a defense against envy, the depression of separateness, and despair. When one’s own needy part is denied and placed in another, the other begins to look like one’s own self, like a child to a parent. Then such a person becomes a parent to their own needy self, placed in another—but necessarily a harsh, authoritative parent who punishes and seeks revenge. Thus, the subject identifies with the object, the parent they never had and desperately needed, and therefore envies with burning intensity. This seemingly complex dynamic of envy and its defenses is vividly conveyed through the actions, behavior, and character of Miss G. Her soul’s wounds—her "cracks"—are exposed more and more. They could have become scars, but to do so, the wounds would have had to be acknowledged and healed so they could scar over. The film’s title Cracks likely captures the essence of the situation and the protagonist’s inner state perfectly. These are cracks through which life drains away. Unhealed wounds, like gaping holes, are traps for the soul. They bind, drain strength, and offer no support—only the possibility of falling and getting stuck.
The film’s ending feels inevitable. The protagonist sees her beloved student, whom she loves with a love tainted by envy, everywhere. She literally stalks her. It becomes unclear who is who, who needs whom, and who is pursuing whom, where illusion ends and reality begins. Clearly, one is inside the other. The image returns to where it began. A sexual transgression occurs—a homosexual act that inflicts trauma. There is a risk that everything will be exposed and made public, which would bring shame and the loss of respect, pride, status, and position. Miss G kills her student. The scene of murder and death strongly resembles the death of Narcissus, as often depicted in the myth described by Ovid. Just as the legendary Narcissus kills another, as an unacceptable part of himself for some reason, Miss G psychologically dies along with her victim, left alone with herself. In her usual state—lonely, humiliated, and broken—she leaves the boarding school. Though she may escape criminal prosecution, she cannot save herself. Just as she cannot overcome her depression or mourn her lost, dead part. All she can do is evade responsibility and herself, continuing to strive for an unattainable ideal.
