DESHORA (Belated)
(ARgentina-Columbia-Chile-NOrway)
Another personal favorite, the heavy-handed chamber drama "Deshora” from Argentina-Columbia, is the feature debut of Argentine Barbara Sarasola-Day.
A long opening
tracking shot through tobacco fields in the Argentine highlands shows the back
of a man bearing a heavy load.
We are therefore
introduced to the burdened lives of a wealthy tobacco farmer Ernesto, his wife
Helena and Helena’s cousin Joaquin, fresh out of rehab, who joins them to
experience farm life and the salutary benefits of physical effort.
We understand
there is a problem here with dependence – on narcotics, but also some troubles
with the affection, status, and convention.
Coming
from a tradition of noblesse oblige, muscular, macho Ernesto (Luis Ziembrowski)
glad hands his peasant employees and participates in landed-gentry traditions
like hunting, cockfighting and visiting the bordello.
He's
not particularly interested in bedding horsey wife Helena (Maria Ucedo-one of the most sensual actresses on screen), who is
desperate for a child.
Their lack of success has made them irritable and prone to
half-hearted sex.
But social context and the osmotic virility of ranch life shores
up their marriage.
Ernesto takes then Joaquin to cockfights, to his regular high-end brothels
and out hunting.
“Animals can smell fear” he says, as he shows Joaquin how to fire
a rifle, embracing him from behind and releasing a more elemental response:
an attraction as undeniable as the grass on which they stand…
Joaquin’s character is meant to spice up the couple’s sex life, particularly if they can see
him watching. The atonal acting of the actor, though, fails to bring any erotic
spark to the tale…
Ernesto and Joaquin (an uncharismatic asexual being)
torch each other with looks.
And one day with one kiss that stands for a whole
world of forbidden desires, transferred by both men onto an increasingly
confused Helena.
The film rests almost entirely on this trio for whom the open
spaces around them are an escape from their confinement within inherited and
perpetuated norms.
Stretched to the maximum bearable, they reach into the corners of
their projected roles…They open old scars… They draw new blood from a society
made vulnerable by prejudice…
Misty,
uneven camera work by Lucio Bonelli approximates the green-gray-yellow color of
a bruise, the warm and humid surroundings, the noises of an old wooden floor secretly
stepped on at night…
It is a literally dark, elaborated execution
of an overly familiar theme in the conservative countryside of northwest Argentina.
A place where men are men…
... women are mothers, whores or servants…
...and homosexual
desire is present, but absolutely taboo…
GD
A Pucara
Cine, Antorcha Films, Faction Film production, in association with Atopic, with
the support of Incaa, Proimagenes Colombia, FDC. Sorfond Norwegian South Film
Fund, Fundacion Carolina Casa America, IFP. Produced by Federico Eibuszyc,
Jhonny Hendrix, Barbara Sarasola-Day, Dag Hoel, Daniel A. Werner.
Directed,
written by Barbara Sarasola-Day.
With:
Luis
Ziembrowski, Maria Ucedo, Alejandro Buitrago.
(Spanish
dialogue)
Camera (color, widescreen, HD), Lucio Bonelli;
editor, Catalina Rincon; music, Alvaro Morales; art director, Marcela Gomez
Montoya; sound (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Running time: 102 MIN.
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