|
Lorenzo Vigas (Venezuela, 1967)
debuted with Desde Alla/ From Afar (2015).
co-written with Guillermo Arriaga (Alejandro Inarritu's 21 Grams and Amores Perros),
is an odd cross of neorealism, film noir and psychological drama.
In the first scene an older man eyes a younger man on a bus.
In the second scene the
middle-aged man is sitting and telling the boy, who is standing up and facing away, to pull down his pants so he can see his butt;
and then the older man masturbates.
This middle-aged man,
Armando, works diligently in a laboratory to make dentures.
He visits his sister, who is adopting a child with her husband.
Armando tells her that their father is back in town, and she admits that she
had heard the news two months earlier. Clearly this is an estranged father.
Armando stares at young males chatting at the corner of a street and then
he follows one and invites him to his place, and offers him money to strip for him; but this time the boy hits him and runs away with the money and a little statuette.
This boy, Elder, works in a car body shop and with the stolen money pays the
first installment on a used car.
He and his friends pick up steel bars and beat kids who are playing billiard:
the brothers of Elder's girlfriend.
The middle-aged man, with a bandaid on his eyebrow,
meets the kid again and offers him more money: the kid steals it again.
Nonetheless, they have lunch together. Armando acknowledges that he has
never been married while Elder eats all he can and then leaves when his
friends call him.
Armando takes a taxi to follow a car (presumably his father's).
He is sleepless at night.
The following day Armando enters a building and follows an older man (presumably
his father) to the 14th floor but then leaves without saying a word.
Armando's sister gets the child and throws a party to celebrate.
Armando looks for Elder, who has disappeared, and finally finds him: Elder
is lying unconscious after being beaten by his girlfriend's brothers.
Armando takes him to his place. Elder sleep for seven days.
When he finally wakes up from his quasi-comatose state,
they dine together and Elder talks about the father who beat him and died.
When Armando leaves the house, Elder tries to open his safe but Armando comes
back in time. Elder leaves.
However, he comes back and accepts to be taken to the hospital to fix what
is still broken. They become frends.
Armando buys his car. Elder admits that his
father is not dead: he is in jail for killing a friend of his.
They both have estranged fathers, and it's clear that Armando's father did
something very wrong to his children.
Armando and Elder spend time together at the beach. Elder introduces Armando
to his mother in a dancehall,
and suddenly Elder tries to kiss Armando in the bathrooms. Armando rejects
him and slaps in the face, but someone sees them.
Elder's mother is disgusted and kicks Elder out of the house. Elder moves in
with Armando.
Armando takes Elder to follow his father.
Elder offers to kill Armando's father.
They finally have sex.
Elder kills Armando's father but is later arrested.
(Copyright © 2015 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
|
|
