The Other One by Francisco Bermejo
Three Latin American films, from Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela, were among the winners at the 2020 edition of the Swiss documentary film festival Visions du Réel in Nyon, which took place online this year.
The Chilean film The Other One / El otro by Francisco Bermejo was the winner of the Best Film Award in the Burning Lights International Competition, with a cash prize of the equivalent of $10,000 USD. Somewhere at the end of the world, where ocean and rocks play their endless games of hide and seek, lives a man. In his mysterious solitude, he is not alone. One day, remains of a white whale are washed by a storm on a beach. In this stranded portrait inspired by H. Melville’s masterpiece Moby Dick the director questions our inner reality and our own gaze on it.
In the official competition, the Venezuela film El Father Plays Himself by Mo Scarpelli received a Special Mention and the Mexican film Off the Road by José Permar was the winner of the Interreligious Award for best film that sheds light on issues dealing with meaning and sense of direction in life, with a cash prize of the equivalent of $5,000 USD.
Directed by by Italian American filmmaker and cinematographer Mo Scarpelli, El Father Plays Itself is a portrait of a complex filial relationship and shifting power balance, centered on Venezuelan filmmaker Jorge Thielen Armand (La Soledad) who left Venezuela as a child, while his father remained there. In a country that he struggles to recognize, the son is now directing a fictional film (La Fortaleza) about the troubled past of this genitor in the illegal goldmines of the Amazonian jungle.
Set in Baja California, José Permar’s debut feature Off the Road follows Rigo, Davis, and Paco, three fans of the Baja1000, the world’s largest off-road motorsport, as they seek to escape the monotony. Borrowing from both the western and the musical genres, the movie depicts the trio with empathy and places the beat of “corridos” over their images.
