An En Chiga Films presentation. Produced by Catalina Pereda. Executive producer, Marcela Rodriguez. Directed, written by Nicolas Pereda.
With: Gabino Rodriguez, Juana Rodriguez, Teresa Sanchez, Clarisa Malheiros, Juana Lopez, Refugio Alejo, Eufracia Zapateco.
Nicolas Pereda's "Where Are Their Stories?" is a bold, confident and formally radical first feature that confirms Mexico's position as a home to a major wave of talented young filmmakers. Pic hangs on a slender tale of a young man's efforts to help his grandmother keep her home away from prying relatives fresh from the States, but haunts the memory as a mesmerizing contemplation of family members in isolation and Mexican city and country life in general. Plum pick for any self-respecting fest won't sell much, but will launch a notable international career.
Perhaps because he's also Mexican, the name of Carlos Reygadas has been mentioned more than once -- incorrectly -- as the key influence on Pereda's film, completed as his grad project at Toronto's York U. film department. As with Lance Hammer's Sundance prize-winning "Ballast," films by the Dardenne brothers and Bresson are absorbed into pic's fabric, along with some direct tips of the cap to Thailand's Apichatpong Weerasethakul (including a 20-minute delay in the appearance of credits). Yet like many rising cineastes of his generation, Pereda adapts and molds these outside voices to fit his local circumstances.
The film begins on a note of misdirection: Vicente (Gabino Rodriguez), a young cattle wrangler in Zicatlan in Puebla state, appears to be waiting for his grandmother (Juana Rodriguez) to die. Instead, it's just a momentary relapse from which the sturdy old gal soon recovers. But, anticipating her immediate demise, Vicente's relatives have rushed back from their Stateside work to wrest ownership of her property. Pereda's effective and ironic visual symbol for this is a fence the relatives erect around her home.
After lengthy sections devoted to Vicente's rural life, pic suddenly shifts to Mexico City, where Vicente has thumbed a ride to find an attorney to defend his grandmother's claim to her land. The complicated family situation reaches unexpected levels of tension, even dread, when Vicente stays in the home where his mother Teresa (Teresa Sanchez) works as a full-time maid.
Class conflicts burn just under the surface as Vicente is suspected of stealing a video camera, lawyers look upon him with barely disguised bemusement and Teresa is asked to perform duties far beyond her pay grade.
Latter drama is staged with such restraint that inattentive viewers may miss it, but in fact is made more terrifying by the power of suggestion. Once he manages to lay out the narrative basics and no more, Pereda shows he's a true student of Bresson, a trust in trusting the images and silences to convey his story's concerns.
Making no extreme demands on his cast of theater-trained thesps and nonpros, Pereda elicits perfs in the same low key he imposes on his camera (Alejandro Coronado did the solid vid lensing). Gabino Rodriguez is especially good at suggesting the willpower of a humble guy who refuses to be pushed around.
Reportedly made in the ultra-low four figures, pic is a fine example of super-indie Latin American filmmaking combining aesthetic class with extremely limited resources.
Camera (color, DV), Alejandro Coronado; editor, Pereda; music, Pereda; sound, Ana Garcia. Reviewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival (Latino CineMedia), Jan. 29, 2008. (Also in Montreal, Morelia, Ghent film festivals.) Running time: 73 MIN.
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Date in print: Mon., Feb. 25, 2008