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“The Violin”, by Francisco Vargas

“The Violin” enters its second week in São Paulo

On Friday, February 2nd, The Violin, winner of the special prize of the jury in the São Paulo 30th International Film Festival, will enter its second week in São Paulo. The Mexican movie was directed, written, co-produced and co-edited by Fernando Vargas.

The São Paulo Festival prize is not alone in the feature movie’s career. Among other trophies, all of them in 2006, leading actor Don Ángel Tavira (Special Mention by the Jury in the São Paulo Festival) received the Best Actor award both in the “Un Certain Regard” section of the Cannes Film Festival and in the Latin competition of the Gramado Film Festival. In the latter “The Violin” was also awarded the best Latin-American Film prize by the jury and the audience, as well as the “Kikitos” Critics Prize and the Best Screenplay Prize. Finally, it received a special mention in the San Sebastián Film Festival.

The film’s success is the answer to the sheer power of the story, to the actors’ charisma, to the narrative’s simplicity and to Martín Boege Paré’s black-and-white cinematography, itself almost the story’s co-narrator.

Don Ángel Tavira plays the role of Don Plutarco, who survives by playing his fiddle although his hand has been amputated (the bow is strapped to the maimed arm). He does so in the company of his son Genaro (played by Gerardo Taracena), and of his grandson Lucio (Mario Garibaldi).The three will, in their own way, resist the military regime that oppresses peasants and rebels alike. Of particular importance is Don Plutarco’s relationship with The Captain (Dagoberto Gama), who is a music lover.

Vargas defends the idea that, while there is music in one’s soul, there is hope. Tavira’s presence, which exudes empathy, sums up this theory. Proof of this was his performance at the 30th Festival’s closing ceremony, which was one of the highlights of the evening and of the whole event.
And now, The Violin has just started playing on the country’s big screens.

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Photo gallery

Don Ángel Tavira