20th(2018)
The Swamp
Lucrecia Martel1
- Argentina, Spain
- 2000
- 101min
- Blu-ray
- color
- Fiction
SYNOPSIS
The film tells the story of Mecha, a middle-aged woman who spends a boring summer with her husband and children, two maids, and neighbors in the Northern Argentina country estate called La Mandragora. In the hot and humid weather, adults take their time on sunbeds with cool glasses of wine; children loll around in beds or go hiking with hunting rifles. Due to an accident, Mecha’s son Jose and her cousin Tali, who raises kids in La Cienaga, come to the house.
A sound of shotgun from afar, unending telephone rings, and chaotic daily noises evoke tension and foretell that something might happen. The television in Mecha’s room repeats TV report on the girl who allegedly saw the Virgin Mary. The film exposes the TV frame onto the screen to directly quote the news. Some insulting words against Indios criticize the social atmosphere of the time. Among many characters, viewers are allowed neither to focus on any single character nor to observe them from a distance. The only subject which viewers can assimilate to is the humid and sticky air like a swamp. This is an ambitious debut feature of Argentine director, Lucrecia MARTEL. [KIM Sohee]
Director
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Lucrecia Martel1Lucrecia Martel1
Lucrecia MARTEL was born in 1966. She studied animation at Avellaneda experimental and attended the ENERC for a few years, studying Communication Science. She directed some short movies between 1988 and 1994, among them Dead King, which was part of Short Stories I (Brief Tales I). For her first film, La Ciénaga, she won numerous prizes. In 2004 her second feature film, La Niñasanta, was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Her third film, La Mujer Sin Cabeza, was selected at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008.
Credit
- ProducerElida STANTIC
- Cast Graciela BORGES, Mercedes MORAN, Daniel VALENZUELA
- Screenwriter Lucrecia MARTEL
- Cinematography Hugo COLACE
- Art director Matias MONSTEIRIN
- Editor Santiago RICCI
- Sound Guido BEREMBLUM
