Qué tan lejos

I saw this movie at the Latin American Film Festival at the AFI and i found it to be a very sweet film. The story is similar to any other "on the road" movies that you've probably seen but it is still funny, warm and engaging. It's interesting to see the interaction between the idealistic (clearly upper class) college student with her activist views and the carefree Spanish tourist. It's also entertaining to see how they both react to the various characters they encounter while on their journey. The beautiful Ecuadorean countryside is also a wonderful added "actor" in the movie. I highly recommend this movie to those people who like quirky independent movies.

This movies wasn't that kind of movie that you'll remember as one of the greatest but it sure did have some "fresco" moments. Good acting by the main actors and some nice nature for you to enjoy. I think that the cameras that was used were kind of low budget. I like the way they ain't afraid showing both sides of Ecuador.

The movie is about a girl from Spain traveling in Ecuador and a Ecuadorian girl both traveling to Cuenca. While on the bus the Indians close the roads and they both decides to take companionship to Cuenca by lifting and walking. On the way they are meeting up with people and getting to know them and the country they're in.

As an American who has spent several years visiting back and forth Ecuador I thought it was a wonderful movie. The dialog between Esperanza and Tristeza keep the viewer interested and Jesús and later Andrés add much to the film. The vistas of Ecuador are beautiful and a picture says a million words. As a high school Spanish teacher I found it an excellent source when we talk about dialects of Spanish. As a teacher of high school I am very picky about what I show to the students as I don't want to show inappropriate films to them. This picture was pretty much a PG-13 film based on using the f word once and there are introductions to the person that a narrator makes that use inappropriate information such as her first period or his first orgasm....Nevertheless, overlooking those few seconds of inappropriate for high school material showing this film is an excellent idea, I just fast-forwarded that stuff which again takes up very little less than 1 minute. I highly recommend it to teachers or anyone who would like to see what Ecuador looks like in the countryside and have a very good plot. My AP Spanish students loved it and my wife from Ecuador was cracking up when she saw it. Super pleno.

This movie is Tania Hermida's masterpiece. Although it doesn't show all of Ecuador's wonders and sorrows, it surely gives a good impression of it. This, because Ecuador itself is way to complex to summarize in one movie. However, "Que Tan Lejos" shows Ecuador as it is, not like a postcard or a news-teller would show it. Plus, it lets people see how other people see the country: one one hand, you have Tristeza (Sadness: In Ecuador, you have women named Esperanza-Hope, Alegría-Joy, Soledad- Loneliness), a college student that will be considered by some people a "Socialist Party" member because she recalls Ecuadorian problems without any pity and Teresa: a Spanish tourist that comes with no idea of the real Ecuador, but doesn't want to do any harm to it. This movie is so special because, even though the events in the movie aren't real, they're pretty close to all the car trips that we Ecuadorians make. Plus, it allows foreigners to taste Ecuador as it really is.

I have not seen a movie that portraits and demystifies the contemporary Ecuador, particularly in Quito and Cuenca, both Andean cities. The dialogue in this movie is extremely clever, and it captures the subtleties of culture, especially language. Esperanza, a woman from Barcelona, Spain visits Ecuador, where she meets Teresa in a bus going from Quito, the capital, to Cuenca. During their trip, they face a strike and continue their trip on foot. They meet Jesus on the way, who in my opinion is the best actor in this film. Teresa, who tells her impromptu friends that her name is "Tristeza" (sadness), wants to stop her boyfriend's wedding in Cuenca. My only issue with this movie is the end, that lacks a resolution and seems pretty vague. The soundtrack by Nelson García is superb. In the end, watching this movie is like reading a great book; it is open to many interpretations.