I guess the message the ending of Rich Flu was trying to convey was that no matter how hard we try, we will always be slaves to our materialistic desires. [Spoiler alert] Laura Palmer, originally named Jake, traveled halfway around the world to protect her daughter, Anna, and most of all, herself, but in the end, Laura's journey taught her nothing. She remained obsessed with her watch and was willing to do anything to get it back. Perhaps some people don't truly understand the meaning of selfless sacrifice. This is especially true for Laura, who viewed everything in life as transactional.
In the second half of the film, I struggled to understand why director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia focused so much on Laura's journey and why he didn't give us the answers we craved. For example, where did swine flu come from, who created it, and is there a cure? The point is, Rich Flu isn't the kind of film that, in the end, gives you all the answers. It's an abstract narrative that attempts to make a commentary on the wealthy, so with that said, let me take a closer look at Laura's journey in the film and point out how she undermined the sacrifices of her loved ones only to be unable to overcome her own demons.
Director: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
Writers: Pedro Rivero, Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, Sam Steiner
Stars: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rafe Spall, Lorraine Bracco
I suppose it was made clear from the very beginning that this was going to be a very psychedelic science fiction story where the audience wouldn't get conclusive answers about what was happening in the cinematic universe. Laura, the main protagonist, worked for a film production company run by Sebastian Snail Jr. Well, the boy was the son of a rich man who always treated his subordinates like dirt, and Laura, being just one of the employees, couldn't do much about Snail Jr.'s decisions. She simply listened to the stories of the filmmakers and screenwriters and relayed them to Snail Jr., who, despite having no knowledge of filmmaking, always had the final say, since his rich father was the one who financed everything.
Now, as the rich man's flu gripped the world, Snail Sr. devised a plan and decided to expand the philanthropy department. In a nutshell, he signed his wealth over to the shareholders of this new department, and Laura, who always yearned for a life of luxury, fell into the rich man's trap and signed the documents. As soon as he squandered his money on these poor individuals and made them his scapegoats, he sent them to different parts of the world to spend his money, giving them a chance to save themselves from the newly created pandemic.
He sent Laura to an auction at Buckingham Palace and asked her to bid as high as possible. At first, Laura didn't quite understand the intention, but upon witnessing the death of King Charles and the chaos that reigned in London, she quickly understood the purpose of the rich man's charity. Snail Sr. disappeared from the scene, while his son caught the rich man's flu and died shortly after. In the film, the infection was represented by gleaming white teeth, obviously implying the privileged's concern for health and hygiene, especially abroad. So what better way to announce their impending doom than those shiny teeth? The flu of the rich was targeting billionaires and world leaders, and so, to save their lives, the privileged and wealthy began destroying their possessions or distributing their wealth to escape the virus before becoming infected.
For some, it worked; for many, it didn't. Meanwhile, the rest of the world was infected with plutophobia, where the lower and middle classes developed a hatred of the rich and asked them to leave the community or quarantine themselves so as not to spread the virus. As the pandemic spread across the globe and every metropolis in developed countries was plunged into chaos, Laura's maternal love for her daughter, Anna, suddenly became apparent. This was the same woman who forgot her daughter's birthday and then skipped it just to attend a meeting with Sebastian Snail Sr. Now, imagine how she could have saved her life by not getting rich if she had decided to choose her daughter over her materialistic obsessions, but she didn't. So here she was, a wealthy Laura trying to squander her money on her assistant, Christian. This was the man who had been with Laura through thick and thin, but as soon as he saw her true colors—how she tried to discredit him to save her life—Christian decided to separate from Laura for her own good.
Now, Laura, alone, finally boarded a private helicopter to reach Barcelona, where her daughter was staying with Martha, her mother. Earlier in the film, when her husband, Toni, approached her before the screening and asked her to return to Barcelona to prevent the family from being separated, Laura humiliated him and told him to his face that his "one-bed, takeout lifestyle" wasn't what she wanted for her daughter. The novel pandemic was forcing Laura back to the life she despised. Without Christian, Laura had no one to turn to for help except her husband, from whom she wanted a divorce. With cities burning and the wealthy quarantined, Laura was forced to take refuge in her mother's village, which she previously hated.
What's more, Laura had planned a perfect future for Anna, but forgot to ask her what she really wanted in life. That poor girl just wanted her parents to stay together and be there for her when she needed them, but they couldn't do that because of their personal grudges. Rich Flu revealed that Laura's parents were artists who, through their art, often fought against tyranny and inequality. In Laura's hometown, graffiti from her father could be seen reading, "Sell your clothes, but keep your ideals." And ironically, Laura, who likely grew up in poverty, learned nothing from her parents. She always harbored a sense of luxury that her idealistic parents couldn't afford, and so Laura left her village to pursue the lifestyle she had always desired. The film didn't reveal what exactly happened to Laura's father, but one could speculate that he likely abandoned the family when Laura was very young, which could have affected her psyche and her fear of losing things in life.
As soon as Laura arrived in the village with Toni, the villagers refused to take her in. The villagers didn't want any rich people or outsiders bringing the virus into their close-knit community and protested outside Martha's house to force her daughter to leave. This was the moment Martha decided to leave the city and take Anna, Toni, and Laura to the mountains of Tanzania, where her friend lived in a large, self-sufficient house he had built himself.
In short, Laura and her family didn't make it to safety, but ended up in a refugee camp on the island of Lampedusa, Italy, also known as "the gateway to Europe," which, as its name suggests, is a gateway for African migrants trying to reach Europe. There, Laura learned the true meaning of poverty, though this had little effect on the capitalist ideas she had deeply ingrained. Early in the film, Toni told Laura how she wished for a happy ending for her family, with the couple holding hands near a beach. And though her dreams never came true, she demonstrated her love for her family by making the ultimate sacrifice. Before leaving Barcelona, Toni signed the transfer of assets she had prepared for Christian. Toni handed the contract to Pablo, the local man, who presumably filed the documents, making Toni one of the richest people in the world and, in turn, saving Laura from the virus. Well, as Toni said, she finally got a rich husband, just what she had always longed for, although Toni had to pay with his life to satisfy Laura's selfish desires.
After Toni's death, Laura and her family spent a few days in the camp. Meanwhile, her mother, Martha, devised a plan to escape. The refugees created a makeshift raft similar to the one in the painting "The Raft of the Medusa." Ironically, the very painting Laura had bid for at the London auction eventually became her reality. Life made her understand the true meaning of the painting by making her experience the pain and suffering of those who inhabited it. The scene also comments on how the rich always enjoy "misery" in the form of art, which they proudly display in their living rooms to show off their wealth to their wealthy friends, but no one ever asks the motive or purpose of such artistic expression. I'm no expert, but I understand that the artist, Theodore Gericault, who created the painting, wanted to express the sorrows and hardships of life through his work, which, simply put, is not something the rich care about. They only value art because it has monetary value.
At night, while Martha, Laura, Anna, and Yoleen, their new friend, along with other refugees, were on the makeshift raft, they were attacked by the Libyan speedboat, so the group split up. Before leaving the island, each member of the group received a map so they could find the meeting point. After the shipwreck, Laura finally managed to reach her daughter and Yoleen, but her mother was nowhere to be seen.
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