Violence of the Chilean dictatorship, street children of Medellin, complexity of father-daughter relationships… Latin cinema enchants Biarritz.
Pair Olivier Ubertalli
© Geko Movies
Published on
Link copied
Copy link
Lhe creativity of Latin American cinema is in the spotlight at the Biarritz Latin America festival, which runs until October 2. Under the leadership of its new programmer Jean-Christophe Berjon, the team has put together an exciting selection of fiction and documentaries this year, to which are added films screened out of competition. Small selection of three outstanding films to be found in the coming months in French theaters and on video streaming platforms.
I have electric dreamsby Valentina Maurel (Costa Rica)
Like the magnificent Afertsun by young director Charlotte Wells, screened at Cannes during Critics’ Week and at the Deauville Festival, where it won the Grand Prix, I have electric dreams dissects the fusional relationship of a teenager and her father. When her parents split up. Eva, 16, can no longer bear to live with her mother and dreams of moving to her father’s. But the latter has a hard time recovering from the breakup and taking care of himself. He squats at a friend’s house and scribbles poems on a piece of paper. An intimate rage animates father and daughter, so close that conflict still simmers between them.
Valentina Maurel signs a captivating first feature film, with fragile beauty and carried by magnificent photography. The violence of his country, Costa Rica, rumbles muted in every shot. She follows her characters like tightrope walkers on a tightrope and constructs an adolescent Time.news as disturbing as it is endearing. I have electric dreams won three prizes at the 2022 Locarno Festival (directing prize, prize for best female and male interpretations for Daniela Marín Navarro and Reinaldo Amien Gutiérrez). Our favorite of the festival!
1976by Manuel Martelli (Chile)
The dictatorships that prevailed in the 1970s and 1980s in Latin America remain an inexhaustible source of cinema. Of Missing (signed Costa Gavras in 1982) to Santiago 73post-mortem of Pablo Larrain, via The official history, Oscar for best foreign language film in 1986, the directors have not ceased to return to the way in which these bloody events have upset societies. For his fifth feature film, Argentina, 1985presented in Venice and Biarritz, Argentinian filmmaker Santiago Miter looks back on the historic 1985 trial against the military junta in power in Argentina from 1976 to 1983 and the magnificent Azor by Andreas Fontana, soon to be released, recounts the search for a Swiss banker who disappeared during the dark years.
By attacking the Chilean dictatorship for her first film, presented at the Directors’ Fortnight, Manuela Martelli takes the risk of being compared to the many works dealing with the subject. She takes on the challenge brilliantly, above all thanks to the interpretation of an exceptional actress who carries the film 1976 from start to finish: Aline Kuppenheim. The actress aptly embodies Carmen, a depressed woman who languishes in her seaside house, three years after Pinochet’s coup. When the priest asks her to treat an injured young militant, Carmen departs from the padded comfort of her bourgeois life and puts her life in danger. Manuela Martelli films faces, bodies and landscapes with a sensual and greedy eye, playing with objects and vintage details from the 1970s. A success!
The Kings of the worldby Laura Mora (Colombia)
Electric poles and a white horse in the middle of the deserted, sleeping city. Suddenly, the hustle and bustle of the streets of Medellin, the constant movement on the moped. They are five penniless children without parents to survive in this urban jungle, through small businesses and petty thefts. Until one of them, Ra, receives a letter from the government informing him of the restitution of the land taken from his grandmother by paramilitary groups. The merry band decides to go through Colombia to pick them up in the Bajo Cauca region. For them, it’s about going in search of a new kingdom.
Colombian director Laura Mora follows the odyssey through the mountains and wide open spaces of these forgotten by society. We vibrate with them when they play with cows, are mothered by old beauties, hang out in seedy bars and face injustice. The plans are bewitching. The camera vibrates in unison with the youth of the protagonists. We quickly sense that for these princes, there will never be a possible and welcoming kingdom. A poignant and enlightening film.