Guadalajara Film Fest

Juntos

 (Canada-Mexico)

By ROBERT KOEHLER

An Enchinga Films production. Produced, directed, written, edited by Nicolas Pereda.
 
With: Gabino Rodriguez, Luisa Pardo, Francisco Berreiro.
(Spanish dialogue)
 

A runaway dog and failing household appliances are enough to send a young couple and a buddy/roommate on an uncomfortable, unstable track in Nicolas Pereda's minimalist gem, "Juntos." The fingerprints of a real artist are all over Pereda's follow-up to his widely praised debut, "Where Are Their Stories?," which also spun a set of complex situations from a simple event. Though conceived as a transitional project before Pereda's upcoming third feature, this one will easily hold its own at smart fests, and might draw the eyes of distribs scouting the latest in contempo cinema.

Like a phantom that hovers over the living, the dog whose name, Junto, gives the film its title is never seen onscreen. The pooch has just escaped the Mexico City apartment shared by its owner, Gabino, and his g.f., Luisa (Luisa Pardo), and where pal Paco (Francisco Berreiro) is momentarily crashing. Gabino blames Paco for leaving the front door open, but he soon gets over it, calling out for Junto on the roof, where he finds the water pipes and heater don't feel quite right.

Gabino and Luisa discover two new household headaches: Their freezer has stopped working, and the water coming out of the faucet is near-scalding. Pereda uses these banal situations to study the increasingly strained relationship between b.f. and g.f., and the loose and easy one between Gabino and Paco, especially in a lighthearted exchange as Gabino checks the plumbing while Paco chats with him offscreen.

Even more than in "Where Are Their Stories?," Pereda deploys elements that are just out of view to inform the characters and subtle shifts in the film. Tellingly, the title is a triple entendre: Not only referring to the dog, it suggests the humans are just as lost as the pet, and also plays ironically on the Spanish-language definition of being united or together, since Gabino, Luisa and Paco are almost never seen onscreen together.

While certain scenes may deliberately bring to mind American mumblecore films, particularly Andrew Bujalski's, Pereda accomplishes something those filmmakers would never dream of: an eight-minute-plus dinner-table scene with barely a word or hint of eye contact between the frustrated Luisa, none too pleased that Paco is taking up space in their small place, and Gabino, who can't believe all this crap is happening to him at once. The pressure becomes nearly unbearable and feels true to the way couples on the edge behave.

It's worth noting that such a scene, as well as almost all of Pereda's cinema, is at odds with the norm of most contempo Mexican films. Just as Gabino, Luisa and Paco have seemingly reached a domestic dead end, "Juntos" jumps to a glorious outdoor setting somewhere outside the city, where Gabino is pretty sure the dog may have sought refuge.

The finale conveys a lovely pastoral mood, as well as a sense of aching loss, again expressed with few words and some images that echo Manet masterworks, as well as the figures-in-a-landscape films of Lav Diaz. The sequence doesn't drift into the mystical, but strongly suggests something has so profoundly changed among the characters that they'll never be the same again.

For the record, the pic is listed as a Canadian-Mexican co-production because the majority of funding came from sources in Canada, where Pereda splits his time with his native Mexico. Digital lensing (by Pereda's regular cameraman Alejandro Coronado) is exquisite, surviving subpar projection.

Camera (color, DV), Alejandro Coronado; production designer, Pereda; sound, Pereda. Reviewed at Guadalajara Film Festival, March 23, 2009. Running time: 74 MIN.