Jornal da Mostra
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Edição:
Renata de Almeida e Leon Cakoff
“Hamaca Paraguaya”, the only paraguayan film since 1978, divides opinions
A philanthropist is a philanthropist. The Catholic Church subscribed to killing off the Indian population in the New World in the assurance they were humans destitute of a soul and not, therefore, God`s children, yet was also patron to some of the greatest creators ever, in their time, including Leonardo da Vinci.
"Hamaca Paraguaya" was the first film seen in the parallel section `Un Certain Regard`, in the 59th Cannes Film Festival. The film is certainly here to generate a flurry of opinion, not only in Cannes, but also wherever it is shown, worldwide, beginning with the cinemas in Paraguay itself. The film is part of this ever more rare radical cinema with a language of its own and no concessions made to any code for entertainment held sacred by cinema made in Hollywood.
In spite of its radical language, the film did not come off too badly in obtaining
resources from the benevolent circles of European philanthropists: in France
(Arte and Fonds Sud Cinéma), Germany (World Cinema Foundation, from the
Berlin Festival), Holland (Cinemart, from the Rotterdam Film Festival), Sweden
(the Göttenburg Festival), Argentina (the Buenos Aires Film Festival),
and Austria (New Crowned Hope). With only these, the film makers collected close
on 250 thousand dollars, a goodly amount for a production with at least ten
fixed, well-devised plans, where the voice OFF of an elderly couple is background
to a dreary routine: cutting sugarcane, making dinner and, mainly, chatting
in a hammock (hamaca) strung in a clearing between two trees.
Ken Loach`s new film, for instance, "The Wind that Shakes the Barley",
in the list for competition in Cannes, a film on the Irish War of Independence,
1920-1922, collected eight million dollars from 21 sources of production.
The couple in the hammock talk about the weather, day-to-day triviality and, above all, about the absent son and what could have been done to prevent his leaving as a foot soldier enlisting in the Chaco War (1932-1935). The couple`s dialogs on images of minimalist gesture are hypnotic in effect. Plastic beauty is imperative. The film is precious in its human element. The son will never be seen and, with the news of his death, is never to return. We are aware of his dog barking in the distance that separates the hammock from the house. The soldier`s parents have no idea what a war is for; nor why their son should die in the war. The eloquence of both is a greater indictment than any peace treaty.
Paz Encina`s background comes from new Argentinian cinema, in the country where she graduated in film making and worked as assistant to names already acknowledged: Pablo Trapero and Lucrecia Martel, for instance. Paraguayan film making may indeed be rare, but Paz Encina is a talent full of personality who is here to stay.
For further information:
www.festival-cannes.org
