Hamaca paraguaya

If the movie seems long, it's because it's supposed so. This isn't a blockbuster film, nor is it anything like a big-budget flick coming out of Hollywood. This is one of those films that focus on film-making as an art, not a business. The way the movie is made is only a reflection of what the movie is about: a man and his wife, isolated farmers in Paraguay's back country, waiting. Waiting for rain, waiting for a son who has gone off to war, just waiting. I think Paz Encina took a big risk with this movie; many people WILL feel disappointed. However, those people that look at films as art, and not just as money-making endeavours, will see the brilliance in every single one of the movie's 78 minutes. The message of the film is perfectly portrayed, not only by the fantastic acting and the perfect soundtrack, but also by the right-on directing of Encina.

I just came back from my fifth TIFF film of 2006 - Hamaca Paraguaya. The film is less than 80 minutes long, and contains maybe a total of about 10 scenes, with no cuts, just long continuous still shots, observing two characters from a distance that made it all so intimate. Such a classic story (war and death) told in a most unexpected angle and a daring way. In my opinion, it's minimalist delivery is parallel to Lars Von Tier's Dogville - "less is more". I have to say it is one of my best TIFF experiences - one-of-a-kind low-budget international films deserves to be promoted.

I thought the director really put herself up for a real challenge and managed to far exceed it - bravo! Both my friend and I loved it. Amazing. I was very happy that I saw it on the big screen, where this film is meant to be seen.

Most of the movie consists of the dialogues of an old Paraguayan Indian couple, Ramón and Cándida. These (uncannily true to life) dialogues are in Guaraní (the copy I saw had Spanish subtitles). They face the end of their hard lives and by tacit accord they have suppressed or modified episodes that are too terrible to contemplate or remember. For most of the movie we see and hear them speaking sitting in a hammock in a jungle clearing; they are small figures in a long shot (always the same except for ambient light) and their faces are barely visible. The other characters in the movies are only heard, not seen; in a shot we see Ramón sitting and we hear Cándida speaking with somebody (both off-screen). In another shot Cándida is sitting doing some chores and we hear a voice-over of herself and a postman corresponding to a recent episode in her life. The camera settings are static, and they are very few scene changes.

It is very seldom that we watch a completely original movie. This is one. Its minimalism somewhat reminds you of that of Argentine director Lisandro Alonso (he is thanked in the credits) but this movie is quite different from Alonso's work. It succeeds brilliantly; in spite of is slowness it grabs your attention from the beginning and leads you to an intensely moving ending.

Unfortunately the movie is not yet available in a Region 1 DVD. You mat catch it in festivals or in You Tube. It is a must-see, a movie that defies successfully every cinema convention, a work that invents its own language.

This is director Paz Encina second credit (the first is a short). It is deplorable that she has not made any movie since Paraguayan Hammock; we hope to see more of her work in the near future.

I saw this at the Toronto International Film Festival.

While the expected slow pacing of the story was not something I was looking forward to, this story came alive very quickly for me.

With the Paraguayan-Bolivian war as the background, we zoom in to the life of a mom-dad country outpost in Paraguay centred around a day sitting on a hammock waiting for their son to return.

The impact was strong. The waiting, the hope in their son, and the bleakness of life was intense and very real. I didn't expect such depth in what on the surface would be such a very simple story of hammock banter. But through the banter, through the movements, through the narrative voice, the story kept moving and from there emerged an important comment on war and the impact on one family.

Well done!

Thursday Sept. 28, 2006. When the movie starts I was almost jumped from my seat because surely I was the only person in Vancity Theatre that speak the same language of the protagonists. But, as the movie goes on, my feeling went down. Finally, me and my friend have to get out. Then, the lady from the front desk said: "Ooh, what is going on here. You're the second person that went out saying how boring is the movie". My respect for the try of the director, but this movie is awfully long in a short 78 minutes. I born and grow in Paraguay, I thought would be special for me to go and see a movie made it in the country where I coming from. But that was really flop. Recommendation: bring the pillow because 78 minutes could be perfectly 8 hours long. Then my friend ask her money back at the counter. Too late...