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Amada suffers from its languid and predictable melodramatic structure, but develops from what appears to be a trite period piece into a surprisingly complex drama. After fragile dreamer Amada (the great Eslinda Nuñéz looking desperate and haunted) flirts with her poet cousin Marciel, she is systematically shattered by her callow politician husband and his mistress. Solás uses Catholic iconography of suffering and sacrifice to emphasize the lonely burdens Amada must shoulder. (Marciel turns out to be a thoughtless cad on top of everyone else.) Though wonderfully acted and conceived, this portion of the story is typical of overwrought romantic tragedies. "Good people do not prosper in this world. They get crucified." But Solás continues to spin his story outward from Amada so that it analyzes how the self-centered actions of all the characters are mutually self-destructive. The director equates the corrupt Cuba of 1914, fueled by the riches of a sugar cane boom, as operating under delusional concept of independence on both the state and personal level. Amada works as both a melodrama and a nuanced critique of capitalistic worst impulses, without becoming a ham fisted and didactic rationalization for Castro's regime.