 |
| Director Lorenzo Vigas, lead actor Luis Silva and the presenter |
(Warning: text contains some spoilers)
There is
a first time for everything. I had never earlier been at the presentation of a winning
film at any of the world’s 3 premier film festivals (Cannes, Berlin, Venice)
when the director would be there in person. Sunday 6th of March, at
the MDC Tower Theater changed all that when director Lorenzo Vigas, and Luis
Silva, one of the lead actors from the Venezuelan film “Desde Alla” (“From Afar”),
winner of 2015 Golden Lion at Venice, and the first ever Latin American film to do so, presented their film at this year’s Miami
International Film Festival.
I was
with my buddy Jesus, who is of Venezuelan origin. I understand it must be a
proud moment for all Venezuelans and Latin Americans in general (Latin American
films in particular had a breakout year at 2015 Venice). Given that Venezuela
has a near minimal cinematic output year to year, this being the first ever to even
get a nomination at Venice made its success even more spectacular.
Prior to
the screening, there was a brief introduction; Mr. Vigas mentioned they
maintain strong ties with the Miami community – to me that underscored the importance
of the Miami festival in terms of Latin American cinema, because that is
definitely the area of emphasis and consequently draws a lot of the cast and
crew you would have a hard time anywhere else getting close access to.
After
the screening, the director had an interesting way of addressing the Q&A by
posing a question himself first on why the audience thought Armando called the
cops on Elder; he also asked if we thought Armando had fallen for Elder by the
end of the film. He emphasized he had some thoughts while scripting, but now
the film belonged to the audience.
After
the formal Q&A, both the director and the actor were gracious enough to entertain
further questions and pose for pictures with people who stuck around. Their
humility and approachability were remarkable. I asked Mr. Vigas, that seeing
how he indicated he may have had a skeletal idea of the story, but really felt
the film was open to interpretation, I wondered who his influences were, and if
Michael Haneke was among them. He said yes, and also Nuri Bilge Ceylan and
Bruno Dumont.
(In his
interviews, Michael Haneke provides insights on his own films that are at once
loaded with historical context, and impossibly frustrating, as he impishly
relishes in reiterating there is no single definitive way of deciphering the codes
he provided. I couldn’t help remembering his interviews while sitting at the
Q&A.)
I also
asked Mr. Vigas if while making the film which has pretty strong content, they had
thought about its reception in a traditionally Catholic country like Venezuela;
he said that had not been a concern.
I felt
that the presenter had a somewhat imposing way of introducing the film. It was
a “breath of fresh air” (of course) from a country known for its “bad
presidents” and beauty pageants (really?). Also he reiterated at least twice the
significance of the Venice film festival – I guess he just didn’t want to make assumptions
about the audience’s intellect. And that may be alright. In the process though, I found a ring of commonality that applied to Indian cinema as well. A cinematic culture
that is now synonymous with Bollywood, had its first Golden Lion with Satyajit
Ray’s second instalment of the Apu trilogy back in 1957 (see table), and the
second Asian only after Kurosawa’s ‘Rashomon’.
At last
year’s Toronto film festival I had to skip the screening of “From Afar”. Barely
a week from winning the top prize at Venice, it had an early Saturday afternoon
screening at the TIFF, and I started driving from Boston the morning itself. In
a sense, I had unknowingly saved myself the opportunity to see the film alongside
its creators.
Footnote -
Dating back to the Fascist days, the Venice film festival
is the oldest of the big three; awarded its first Golden Lion in 1949; subsequently
ran into doldrums in the late 60s, and no Golden Lion was awarded from 1969-79.
Golden
Lion winners from outside Europe and North America -
Year
|
Film
|
Director
|
Country
|
1951
|
Rashomon
|
Akira
Kurosawa
|
Japan
|
1957
|
Aparajito
|
Satyajit
Ray
|
India
|
1958
|
Muhomatsu
no issho (The Rickshaw Man)
|
Hiroshi
Inagaki
|
Japan
|
1989
|
Bei
qing cheng shi (A City of Sadness)
|
Hsiao-Hsien
Hou
|
Hong
Kong/Taiwan
|
1992
|
Qiu
Ju da guan si (The Story of Qiu Ju)
|
Yimou
Zhang
|
China
|
1994
|
Ai
qing wan sui (Vive L’Amour)
|
Ming-liang
Tsai
|
Taiwan
|
1995
|
Xich
lo (Cyclo)
|
Tran
Anh Hung
|
Vietnam/France/Hong
Kong
|
1997
|
Hana-bi
(Fireworks)
|
Takeshi
Kitano
|
Japan
|
1999
|
Yi
ge dou bu neng shao (Not One Less)
|
Yimou
Zhang
|
China
|
2000
|
Dayereh
(The Circle)
|
Jafar
Panahi
|
Iran
|
2001
|
Monsoon
Wedding
|
Mira
Nair
|
India/USA/Germany/Italy/France
|
2006
|
Sanxia
haoren (Still Life)
|
Zhangke
Jia
|
China/Hong
Kong
|
2007
|
Se,
jie (Lust, Caution)
|
Ang
Lee
|
USA/China/Taiwan
|
2009
|
Lebanon
|
Samuel
Maoz
|
Israel/France/Germany/UK
|
2012
|
Pieta
|
Ki-duk
Kim
|
South
Korea
|
2015
|
Desde
Alla (From Afar)
|
Lorenzo
Vigas
|
Venezuela/Mexico
|
(Source: IMDB)
