25 Watts

I'm from Ecuador, Quito. This movie is just one of the best movies ever made in Latin America and for sure in the world. This is not a problem about "what is more intellectual or what is more Hollywood style" this movie is simply a tribute of creativity and cinematography. The camera work, the acting way, all the aesthetic decisions are coherent with the script and with our social reality. In my point of view, this is a non common way to say very political things and find a very personal route in movie language.

I'm sure this movie is NOW a reference for young filmmakers and for all artists in the ambient.

This very low budget Uruguayan movie, shot in black and white, and somewhat reminiscent of the films of Jim Jarmusch, tells the story of the aimless adventures of a group of men in their early twenties in Montevideo. None of them studies, a few of them held to crappy jobs, and their success with women is, much to their chagrin, virtually nil. There is not much to do for them but to kill time around the city with various antics. This is shot not as a drama, but as a comedy, which seems to me to be the right decision. If there is a theme to this movie (and this is clearly not a "message" movie) is the lack of meaningful projects for the youth of Uruguay (particularly its males). A useful comparison is with an Argentine movie called 76-89-03, but that film was more corrosive and politically incorrect, and therefore was far more controversial. The directors, Rebella and Stoll, made another film a few years later, Whisky, that it was more polished and mature, and dealt with the hopelessness not of the youth of Uruguay but of its middle aged people. Soon after Whisky, Rebella killed himself with a shotgun, so we don't know whether he would have graduated to a major or important director. A good film, overall.

Saturday, early in the morning. Leche, Javi and Seba wander around the neighborhood with nothing much to do. They drink beer, smoke, talk about girls. 25 watts shows us a day in the life of these three young inhabitants of Montevideo. They spend the day trying to escape from boredom, facing the twists and turns of love, interacting with friends and other picturesque characters from the "barrio" that share moments with them. So we get to see a paranoid delivery man, a weird video club owner among other strange and funny characters. The acting is very good, all the cast. This film was shot in b&w 16mm and then blown up to 35mm. It has a grainy look, which adds certain raw atmosphere to it. It is Stoll and Rebella's first feature film.

Certainly, one you should check out.

I'm from Uruguay and movies here are not so good. But this year five uruguayan films have been made. One of them beat a record in the box-office. But the best of that five films, was "25 Watts". With only 200.000 dollars, Rabella and Stoll (writers and directors of the film) wrote an exellent screenplay and direct the movie in a memorable way.

The story is about three boys that dont do nothing but they have lot problems in the job, with studies, and other things like that. The result is an exellent "opera-prima", a first prize in the Rotterdam Festival, a first prize of best opera-prima in the Coral Awards and a pre-nomination to the Goyas Awards.

For me the best uruguayan film of the year and the history.

This film depicts an average day in the life of three young men in Montevideo (Uruguay) in a very funny way.

The adventures of these guys are bound to entertain you even though, or more likely because they are adventures on a tragically small scale. Even when our heroes are bored a few laughs are just around the corner. The array of sympathetic, hilarious and strange characters that crosses the screen is so colorful I almost forgot that I was watching a film in black and white.

And besides that, the realism that comes to your screen is a refreshment in the Hollywood-dominated world of film.