Hamaca paraguaya

I don't know what are thinking the people which go to cinema and expect to watch an action-package with explosions, and war, guns, etc, etc, etc; just because the film is situated historically in the middle of the war of Paraguay and Bolivia, in 1935.

If you're expecting Bruce Willis coming from the jungle of the Chaco with a MADSEN gun and spreading bullets to everybody... you're in the wrong place, so go and watch Tears of the Sun.

This is a great piece of art, and Paz Encina worked so hard to make a film which speaks for himself. Maybe somebody wouldn't like the translations of the Guarani to Spanish or English. But, let me say that in my everyday there are some words or expressions from the Guarani that couldn't be translated. It's simply impossible. The guarani is a rich language, and sometimes is really not so easy, try to explain the meaning of some phrases. The Guarani are missed for so many people in Paraguay... and today is left behind by the people who live on big cities.

The movie, really had a flat development, truth. But, what can you expect from 2 old persons, waiting for the arriving of the son? There are many people in my country which live just like this old couple. There are people which sent his son to the "capital" to grow up, learn and have the choices or opportunities that they couldn't have. This movie reflects in many aspects a reality of the poor people which work with the fields, and the agriculture. I known many people from the small cities or towns of my country, and those people are really old people, and they are still working so hard. They sent they child to big cities to have good opportunities in education and economic.

They seem have not rest. And the only thing they can do is sit down, or laid down over an hammock, drink TERERE, and speak... or just keep quiet. That's the life of these people, and they are really happy living like that... with no worries at all, and trying to keep together, and expecting for his sons, or relatives.

Yes, "Hamaca Paraguaya", is a great film, great piece of art, and for some people will be boring watch a movie with no action, or ups and downs. Maybe those people are get used with the entertaining and action films... but not with something that reflects the reality of an age, and filmed very very artistically.

Ramón del Río makes a good performance, and I might say that even a little closer to himself... I had the opportunity to meet him personally. Is a very-very-very humble man, and have a special and devoted love for the art; in this case, the acting.

Congratulations Paz Encina.

I went to see 'Hamaca Paraguaya' at an early morning screening at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. Unsure of what to expect, other than a film which takes place almost exclusively around a hammock, I entered the sparsely populated theatre with tired eyes.

Within moments after the film began, I was mesmerized. The monotony of the lives of Ramón and Candida was mirrored by the progression of the film. But instead of becoming boring, the film evoked a sort of slow cadence that was very refreshing and meditative. The sounds of the rainy Paraguayan jungle provided a beautiful backdrop to the conversations between an old man and an old woman waiting for their son to return home.

As a simple, evocative film, Hamaca Paraguaya succeeds admirably. If you go see this, and I really hope many people do: please go in without preconceived notions of it being boring. Instead, let it envelope your emotions and thoughts. By the end, I wished I could sit back in a Paraguayan hammock, and just live.

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!

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.

Pusan Film Festival Reviews 9: Hamaca Paraguaya (Paz Encina)

Here is a film that's created a polarizing reaction at film festivals, where some are inclined to take its painfully dull miserablism as brilliance. It's difficult for me to say that a film of serious intent is completely without merit, but "Hamaca Paraguaya" comes close. I can only guess that the film is an attempt to somehow capture the feeling of growing old and slowly dying, as that's exactly how I felt while sitting through it. First time director Paz Encina pulls off the dubious feat of making festival entrants Tsai Ming-liang, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Aki Kaurismaki look like directors of epic action pictures.

I'm quickly becoming hostile to the static long-shot held for an interminable length of time. Within the span of the film's nearly 10-minute opening shot (the first of less than thirty), with a pair of old people sitting on a hammock in a forest clearing mumbling repetitively in voice-over, the realization dawned that this 75-minute film was going to be a long haul. There are moments where the film very, very briefly acts like it might do something of interest, but those hopes are quickly dashed as the camera returns to the clearing, the hammock, and the mumbling old folks.

Why would a young woman, making the first film in her impoverished country since the 1970s, make one without a pulse? Anything of relevance that the film has to say about war, sorrow, and aging, loses all impact due to its deliberately alienating design. New art from obscure places should be encouraged, but art needs much more than what was on display in this film.