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| UNA CASA CON VISTA AL MAR | |||
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Venezuela - Canada - Spain 2000 / 35 mm / Color / 93 min. | |||
One rainy day, Tomas Alonso, a stoic farmer in the foothills of the Andes, buries his wife. Looking for a way to ease his grief and that of his son, 12-year-old Santiago, Tomas gives the boy the only existing photograph of his mother, a youthful portrait taken on the shore of a distant ocean. Santiago becomes intrigued with this mystical body of water, its vastness something he can barely comprehend. Tomas, who himself has never seen the ocean, invents for his son the only sea he can imagine, an impossible place, at once quaint and magnificent, complete with trees and oxen. One day, Sebastian, an itinerant photographer, crashes his aging truck into the only tree on the plateau. With the help of oxen, the farmer manages to pull the truck back onto the road. Grateful and impressed by the quiet, dreamy duo, Sebastian promises to return to take their picture in front of his ocean backdrop. As Santiago grows older, however, Tomas has difficulty disguising their impoverished condition, which has begun to earn the contempt of their neighbours. Always a peaceful man, Tomas is provoked into attacking a man to redeem his self-respect and win back that of his son. But the bloody incident leads the farmer to prison and leaves the boy on his own, responsible now for the fields and the oxen. Restless and increasingly lonely, Santiago builds a fanciful boat of stones and old junk which he installs on a sea of grain. The situation looks hopeless. Until Sebastian returns... |
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| Script: Alberto Arvelo. D'apr�s le roman/Based on the novel: Vicenzino Guerrero. De/By: Freddy Sosa. Phot.: Cezary Jaworski. Ed.: Jos� Ares. Mus.: Nascuy Linares, Loreena McKennitt. Cast: Gabriel Arcand, Imanol Arias, Leandro Arvelo, Alejo Felipe, H�ctor Manrique, Manuela Aguirre, Marcel Jaworski, Nerio Zerpa, Bernardino �ngel, Ramona P�rez. Prod.: Juan Carlos L�pez Dur�n, imX communications inc., 1190 Barrington Street, Halifax, NS B3H 2R4 (Canada), t�l.: (902) 422-4000, fax: (902) 422-4427, e-mail: [email protected] / Cinema Sur, Av. Andres Bello, C.C. Las Tapias, Piso 2, Oficina 23, M�rida 5101 (Venezuela), t�l. & fax: (58-74) 666 601 / Intercartel, Grun Via Marques, dol. 1 uria, 43, 1 0, 1 4, 46005 Valencia (Espagne), t�l.: (34-6) 352 65 50, e-mail: [email protected]/n/a. Sales: imX Communications Inc. | |||
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Alberto Arvelo Born in Caracas, Venzuela in 1966, Alberto Arvelo graduated in art history from the University of the Andes in Venezuela and made his directorial debut in 1983 with THE SONG OF THE MOUNTAIN adapted from works by Hermann Hesse, and he followed that two years later with, CANDLES IN THE MIST. His subsequent feature, ONE LIFE AND TWO TRAILS, was shown at numerous international festivals, including the 1997 Montreal World Film Festival. In addition to his work in the cinema, Arvelo has written and directed several stage plays, among them The Conti Mirror, The Lady of the Handkerchief and Berengario o La vindicaci�n. |