The organizers of the 29th edition of the Havana New Latin American Cinema Festival, that opens on December 4, have prepared a rich program for film lovers. Among the titles of the feature films participating in the competition there are many of high quality.


Cuba will compete with three films that we have already seen and talked about: Madrigal, by Fernando Pérez, La noche de los inocentes

This time, from the remaining 17 films, we'll highlight three. One is Cobrador, by Paul Leduc (Frida: naturaleza viva) which marks the return of the Mexican filmmaker to cinema - after twelve years of absence- with a film that has been acclaimed in several countries, and is Mexico's choice for a Goya Award.

It's based on five stories by Brazilian writer Rubem Fonseca, a maestro on the treatment of contemporary violence. And it's precisely a reflection on violence which interests Leduc, following what has come into fashion (effective or not, depending on who makes use of it): to interweave the plot with different characters and cities (in this case Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, and New York).
The protagonists of this lively plot are Peter Fonda, Lázaro Ramos ( Madame Satá), and Antonella Costa (Garaje Olimpo).

The second film I will make reference to -which won a Silver Bear at the Berlin Festival this year- is El otro, by Argentinean Ariel Rotter, also awarded Best Actor at the German event. The plot is unquestionably appealing: a lawyer, unhappy with his life, travels on a train.
On his arrival at his destination he discovers that the man next to him can't wake up. So, he decides to take his identity, invent a profession, and live a new life, and with this try to achieve what he had never achieved before. Adventures and reflections about existence, which Julio Chávez once again pervade with his unique personality.

And last but not least, Mexican Carlos Reygadas (Japan) reiterates with his third film, Luz silenciosa, his already demonstrated excellence in responding in a very particular way of conceiving cinema, and in which silence weighs as much as words and photography. The film won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Festival, and the Colón de Oro at Huelva.

The plot of Luz Silenciosa focuses on a menonite man who lives with his family in a religious community in the north of Mexico. Everything is fine up to that point, until the man, against the customs of his faith, falls in love with another woman, and then the eternal struggle between passion and what is considered "correct" in his environment comes to the surface.
The film, which stars non-professional menonite actors, keeps the language of that community, a German dialect close to medieval Dutch.

(ahora.cu)