"Why can't we all just get along?"Just saw the movie Once Upon A Time in Rio -- that shows the different lives of the rich and poor in Rio and The New Villa deals with some similar issues.
The peasants have their lives -- and in this story -- it's the first one that I've read where the peasant lives are shown in a mostly harsh light -- or so it appears.
The wealthy engineer -- and his wife -- refined people from Moscow move into the village and want to do the right thing -- but the peasants in the village don't welcome them. They don't treat them fairly -- not the way decent people should deal with each other. Especially when the cultured engineer and his wife want to do the right thing and help the poor little peasants.
The peasants can't understand the wealthy do-gooders and they have their own concerns -- which is survival. They have tons of children to take care of and are in no mood to appease the earnest visitors from Moscow.
And you can't really blame the engineer and his wife -- they truly want to help. They've built a new villa and want to have a quiet life in the country -- and get along with the peasants and with time help them build a school and better their lives. But it's not meant to be.
The rich have their own concerns and their own lifestyle and no matter what their intentions -- they will clash with the peasants -- they are not going to live peacefully -- it's not an even playing field -- and one or the other is going to have to give in.
The peasants are sick and tired of giving in -- they want to hang on to what they have and feel that the wealthy will only pretend to help them -- lots of false promises.
The issue is trust.
And trust has to build up slowly and over time -- and the commitment is not there from the wealthy engineer. They want things to happen quickly -- good intentions have to be reciprocated right away. But the peasants won't bend that easily -- the trust would have to be won little by little --and over and over again -- but the wealthy engineer and his wife don't understand this -- or just don 't want to put in the time.
Meanwhile, the peasants lose a good opportunity because they didn't take a good offer at face value.
Nobody is really wrong. Or nobody is really right.
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