Cars that catch fire. Cult filmmakers confined to sinister home recordings. A woman who goes through the temporality of her life to explore the ghosts of her past. A woman who finds pleasure never experienced in a ghost. A love that is projected to art and that is kept alive through it. Machines that teach to be more human. A dystopia between color and opacity. A misunderstanding, a dark comedy, a dog in the middle.
The previous paragraph could have been used in any of the last weeks to answer the already outdated song, but in some sustained sense, that national cinema is sinking into its own homogeneity. Which is always the same. That is immersed in a permanent recycling of Whisky and other similar productions that emerged in the mid-2000s. Those who are more or less attentive to the changes in recent years, and of course those who actually watch Uruguayan cinema, you will know that the prejudice at this stage of the game is at least ridiculous. That genres have intersected for a long time, that there is room for experiments, that there is not a single record. Not a single Uruguayan cinema either. But from time to time, almost for the sake of it, this altered perception flies overhead, multiplies like a kind of bacteria from another era and ends up staining reality. And the reality is: the national audiovisual production lives a moment to stand out.
Checking it is very easy and that list that opens the note is related to the answer; just take a look at the current billboard to come across some of those aforementioned arguments, which, in turn, respond to the eight national films that are currently being screened by different theaters in the country. In some cases, the fact that these premieres have been programmed now responds, it is true, to some obvious delays generated by the pandemic, but in the end what ends up being important is that there is access to the films, that there are theaters that show them and that even the most skeptical viewers have the possibility of verifying, at various times, that the idea of a single vernacular cinema is untenable.
This “supermes” began, in some sense, with the last weeks on the billboard of The theory of broken glass, the funny comedy of Diego “Parker” Fernández which premiered on August 26, which was selected by Uruguay as the representative for the Oscar 2022, which has been showing 12 weeks and accumulates more than 11 thousand viewers, with the swing of the gauges included.
The comedy also had a recent annex with The death of a dog, the directorial debut of a feature film by Matias Ganz, creator of the series REC and The world of videos. The film had been previewed in the New Directors competition at the last Cinemateca festival in December of last year, and almost a year later it finds its way to the screen with a story that puts a multi-year marriage on the edge of its own morals. after an “accident” involving a dog and unleashing a wave of retaliation. Dark, funny and wanting to bite to the bone, The death of a dog It could have stored in its genetics that code that allows films to become, from word of mouth and if it remains on the bill, into a small event similar to the one it experienced The theory.
Also within comedy appears Dead with glory, the second film in the duo of Mauro Sarser and Marcela Matta after their debut in The Moderns. And, hand in hand with an interest in capturing a wider audience, accustomed to records that are not so common within national production, it appears Grey eyes, a science fiction film by Santiago Ventura that opens this Thursday. The story poses a post-apocalyptic world where people lost the possibility of seeing the world in color. However, a girl who can do it appears and changes the rules of the game.
National fiction currently has within its offer, also, another film that has been in theaters for several weeks and that deserves to be seen there. Is about Hilda’s Vacation, the dark and formidable debut of the director Agustin Banchero, which competed in San Sebastián and that, although it works from a secrecy that can leave out more than one viewer, it is an aesthetic and narrative proposal to be highlighted. It also has a memorable performance by its protagonist, Carla Moscatelli.
On the border between fiction and documentary, and from the hand of the same production company that Hilda’s Vacation (Tarkio Film), appears on the other side Directly for video. This production of Emilio Silva Torres placeholder image explores the phenomenon behind the so-called “worst film in Uruguayan cinema”, Act of violence in a young journalist —Which also had functions these days at the Cinemateca, so we could add it to the list— and its director, the enigmatic Manuel Lamas. A fascinating exercise that unfolds and is included within the myth of the film itself, and that results in an extremely seductive production.
Apart from newcomers such as Banchero, Silva Torres or Ganz, this “supermes” also brought other names to the screen with more audiovisual careers or in art in general. It is the case of Pablo Casacuberta and his documentary Dream Robots, which narrates the journey of a group of high schools from the interior on their way into robotics, with a world tournament at the Antel Arena including the best tradition of sports films. With moving moments and the impossibility of leaving the room without having regained faith in humanity, Dream Robots He still has several hours in cinemas to sign up for.
Finally, a case similar to that of The death of a dog. The intention of the hummingbird, a documentary by Sergio de León, had been premiered more than a year ago at the Detour festival, and those who had seen it in that one show had expressed their enthusiasm for the story of Ulises and Juan, a couple who, despite their death of the first, it continues to be connected through the impulse of the second to maintain the art of Ulysses in force. Finally, The intention of the hummingbird it reached the “regular” exhibition and there it is: waiting with its exciting tale of love through time. It’s worth the wait between that preview and this one. And, of course, the entrance.
Where to see them
All these films can be seen in the Movie, Life Cinemas, Cinemateca and Room B rooms of the Nelly Goitiño Auditorium. The schedules can be found on the different websites of the cinemas.
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