23/05/2008

South American productions are well represented this year in Cannes, and some are European co-productions. Besides Lucrecia Martel’s competition entry The Headless Woman [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see news), the Directors' Fortnight sidebar presented Liverpool, the fourth feature by Lisandro Alonso, and Salamandra [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the feature debut of Pablo Aguëro.

Shot in remote regions of Argentina, both films take advantage on the country’s landscapes to contrast them with the characters’ inner conflicts and their lack of sense of belonging.

A regular at Cannes, Alonso remains faithful to his radical style. This time he films a traveler, who – like the character in a Carlos Gardel tango – has to stop his journey in order to face the past from which he has been running for the past twenty years. His “return” and confrontation with family his family are told with minimalistic tinges. Very little dialogue and long shots of places and trivial situations are par for the course for the film, which soon becomes a tough portrait about the impossibility to communicate.

Liverpool was produced by the director’s Buenos Aires-based company 4L, Fortuna Films (Holland) and Slot Machine (France), in coproduction with Black Forest Films and Barcelona-based Eddie Saeta Films (also present in the Directors’ Fortnight with Albert Serra’s film Birdsong). Also supported by Hubert Bals Fund from the Rotterdam Film Festival, Liverpool is sold internationally by The Match Factory.

Salamandra marks Aguëro’s return to Cannes after winning the Jury Prize (Official Competition) in 2006 for his short film Primera Nieve. He places his characters in El Bolson, a mythical valley of Argentina’s Patagonia, where a mother (Dolores Fonzi) and her six-year old son (the amazing Joaquin Aguila) will start a brand new life. Far from Alonso’s minimalism, the film features several supporting characters, with disappointing hippy backgrounds and religious beliefs. Everything is seen through the eyes of the little boy.

Produced by Jba Production (France) and Rohfilm GmbH (Germany) with the participation of ARTE Fance and backed my Media Programme I2I, the film is being handled internationally by Films Distribution.