17/04/2008

With subtle ambiguity, Pudor [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Tristàn and David Ulloa opens with dictionary entries, immediately informing audiences as to the value of words (and thus of the title), which in Spanish means discretion, as well as a bad smell.

Based on the novel by Peruvian author Santiago Roncaglielo Alfaguare, and scripted by Tristàn, the film is an ensemble drama on the emotional breakdown of a middle-class family.

“We came across the book while we were talking about depicting incommunicability”, said David Ulloa at the European Cinema Festival in Lecce, “and we decided to move the action from Lima to northern Spain”. This was not the only license they took: “We softened up the dreamlike tone, and the ambiguity of the ending, to delve into the intimacy of the family nucleus, spying on them from a keyhole,” he added.

Yet the film – which begins with the father of the family (Nancho Novo) being diagnosed with only six months left to live – is not an exercise in indiscrete voyeurism. Rather, it examines within and the without the domestic walls the sense of death that pervades all the characters.

Pudor marks the Ulloa brothers’ first feature film as directors. Not that they lack experience on film sets: David is an acclaimed television director, Tristàn has appeared in numerous successful films, including Sex and Lucia. He decided to get behind the camera because, as he loves to say, “an actor and a director have the same job: they tell stories”. His experience contributed to the stellar performance of the entire cast, in particular Elvira Minguez, who was awarded at the Malaga and Karlovy Vary festivals.

Released in Spain in April 2007, Pudor was produced by Tesela P.C. and will be distributed in the upcoming months in Belgium and the Netherlands. It is furthermore nominated for two Goya awards: Best New Director(s) and Best Adapted Screenplay.

(Translated from Italian)