Oleanna was originally a
folktale about a man,
Ole, and a woman,
Anna, who bought up a bunch of
swampland to sell to foolish people as
farmland. Ole and Anna fled the scene after they got the money, leaving the new landowners with their investment.
Since then, however, it was a play written by David Mamet in 1992, and a screenplay in 1994, produced by Patricia Wolff and Sarah Green, and released under The Samuel Goldwyn Company.
Characters
John William H. Macy
Carol Debra Eisenstadt
Because it is written by David Mamet, the dialogue, it --
But too, it also allows for --
one character to --
to lapse over the other's lines --
over their lines, yes.
Oleanna is written for two characters, and the whole play/film is staged in two adjacent rooms in a college.
John is a middle-aged professor, and Carol is a student who comes to him to ask for help, and talk about why she's failing his course. In the context of their conversation, each approaches exclusively from their own background, and a small argument ensues.
Eventually, either days or months later, Carol marks up a protest against the professor, and about the patriarchical structure of the education system. She threatens not-entirely false charges of sexual abuse against him.
When I saw the film, I felt that it was an excellent piece of postmodern work. It was made for an audience that can appreciate raw intellectual combat, where truth is relative.