La Soledad

The first time i watched this movie, I was taken aback by the hypnotizing cinematography that hi-lighted the ruins of the house it is shot in. As the images presented theme-selves on screen, i realized that i was now way too involved in what was to happen with the characters. By the time the ending came about i was filled with a feeling of dread and hope, something that ached for weeks onwards.

But the impact the film had on me further grew as I researched more. The characters in the film, are playing themselves and reenacting a situation that is still happening to them. I've never heard of a movie do something like this, and the level of performance acquired from these suffering non-actors is something else. This is not something to be missed.

I decided to watch this movie because I was interested in learning more about the crisis in Venezuela from the perspective of those living it. However, I thought that this certainly would be a fictitious, if authentic feeling, take. I am flabbergasted that this is a true story portrayed by those experiencing it.

Where others may find the movie static, I found it compelling and appropriately paced for an intimate story that is unfolding practically in real time. Importantly, I had no idea that the actors were not professionals until researching the film afterward. The unvarnished vulnerability and searing honesty is breathtaking.

Glimpsing how the characters experience joy in the midst of devastation is definitely worth the watch.

Third World poverty is a subject the cinema seems unwilling to tackle, perhaps understandably so since the movies are fundamentally a commercial enterprise and 'entertainment' is the name of the game. When 'western' cinema tackles the subject, (and I am thinking here of Hollywood cinema), it tends to romanticize it or make it the subject of a thriller so it's often left to 'native' cinema to deal with their own issues and a lot of the time, when they do, the subject is turned around and treated as an 'action' flic or simply ignored altogether. "La Soledad" is mercifully, and thankfully, the exception.

Jorge Thielen Armand's film hails from Venezuela where poverty and crime are debilitating issues. In a society ruled by violence Negro and his family have virtually nothing, living on the edge and with the likelihood of being thrown out of the crumbling mansion where they are virtual squatters. There is no melodrama in the telling of their tale and little drama either. Armand simply observes his characters as they struggle from one day to the next. This could be a documentary and his cast, all playing themselves, respond with extraordinarily naturalistic 'performances'. The tragedy lies in our knowledge that for many people in Venezuela life is unlikely to get any better than it is shown here. 'Action', for want of a better word, when it happens does so off-screen and yet, never for a moment, could you describe this film as boring; the potential for a violence never actually seen is never far from the surface. Let's hope this extraordinary film finds the audience it deserves.