Second day of this 38th edition of the Mostra de Valencia with two sessions that take us fully into the Official Section. Two presentations in which he planned, like a shadow, the news that the world is experiencing these days with the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. A fact that conditioned the presence of the two directors of the films, that they apologized, thus, his absence in the contest.
This is how the press session began Riverbed, the first of the morning tapes, in which the Lebanese actress Omaya Malaeb recalled the importance of a certain type of cinema in the current moment, as proven by the recent death of a Palestinian photojournalist due to Israeli bombings to whom he wanted to dedicate the projection.
Riverbed It is located in a small town in contemporary Lebanon. In a spacious house with a terrace, Salma lives, a middle aged woman. Salma lives alone. Daily, complies rigorously, almost mechanical, with your work obligations, while her free time is spent on nature getaways with a married man with whom she has a relationship.. However, and even though Salma's life seems complete, something disturbs your nights, when he takes refuge in the solitude of his bedroom. That something takes shape when Thuraya, Your daughter, shows up again at home. Thuraya has just divorced her husband and is pregnant. Two problems to which we must add that the relationship between the two women does not seem to be having a good time..
Con Riverbed, the director Bassem Breche offers us a proposal that develops on several levels. The first of them refers us to personal relationships. Although the film does not explain the reasons, We understand that the distance between Salma and Thuraya comes from afar and is, in principle, insurmountable. However, It is enough for a problem to appear for us all to try to take refuge in the other., especially if you are part of our family. To the conflict between these two women, a social context joins that, as Omaya Malaeb herself explained to the press, retains the woman in a world of appearances and gossip, in which individual freedom is subjected to the implacable judgment of conventions, embodied in the neighbor's scrutinizing gaze. And in the background, social conflicts, violence, present in the context of an almost uninhabited rural world, sometimes imaginary violence, distant, but constant, that sets the rhythm of the country's life.
However, above the argument, The most interesting bet of this production focuses on several formal decisions that establish the tempo and reinforce the meaning of the film.. Although in a somewhat more sober tone, Bassem Breche supports his entire proposal in the use of frames in which he opts for a game of symmetries that, at times, reminds us of Wes Anderson's cinema. However, unlike Anderson, in Breche the resource serves to, beyond mere aestheticism, underpin the emotional tone of the story. An exercise in shapes and spaces that reinforces the sensations that the viewer wants the viewer to go through and that aspire to be as eloquent as the actions or situations that the characters face.. Soledad, distance, they express themselves, So, in a permanent dialogue with physical places, with the walls, with decoration, with the same layout of the house, with natural spaces, but also with the void that remains between those characters and the furniture, empty that, in the end, We understand that you claim the presence of an absence, or that gap that remains between them as a metaphor for their lack of communication.
To further enhance your proposal and challenge yourself (and to the public), Breche practically dispenses with dialogues, entrusting the development of the plot to the gestures of the actors. In this sense, The film calls to highlight the interpretation of its two protagonists in an exercise of mimicry that, at times, They border on the Chaplinesque, which does not have to arouse any inconsideration towards your work.
In the same sense, The technical sound work here becomes something more than filling the scenes to occupy a narrating role., as relevant as the rest of the elements of the film. domestic sounds, other distant ones whose origin is difficult for us to distinguish, but that suggest and play with the viewer's memory that gives or takes away intentions. Sounds that not only accompany images, as background, but rather they are an expression of the state of mind of characters in permanent tension with themselves., with the environment and with those with whom they share their lives. So, For example, in one of the most notable sequences of the film, Salma and Thuraya visit a river where the legend of the death of an ancient princess who is believed to have committed suicide for love weighs heavily.. Then, We understand that the presence of Thuraya, despite being, in the background, desired, It is a disturbance in Salma's life.. Mother and daughter look at the river, separated by a void as physical as moral, while the roar of the strong current of the waters exposes the fury and discomfort that is perceived between them.
Spaces, noises that speak to us. Sounds against the silence of lack of communication.
Same wishes and reflections at the premiere of the film A house in Jerusalem by the director of Palestinian origin Muayad Alayan, presented this time by his brother Rami Musa Alayan, co-author of the libretto on which it is based, who also claimed before the public and the organization of the contest the need to give voice to a work like this at this precise moment. And although in Riverbed the traces of the Israeli conflict could be perceived today as part of that background noise we were talking about, here they are the very material of the story.
Alayan's film tells of the arrival of a girl in Jerusalem, Rebecca, next to Michael, his father. From London where Rebecca grew up, They settle in a stately home in an upper-class neighborhood that their father-in-law and the girl's grandfather have offered them in exchange for nothing.. The reason for this generosity is found in the family relationship they maintain., reinforced by the recent death of Rebecca's mother and Michael's wife. The mark of this absence is perceived in father and daughter, two castaways embarked on a grieving process that has led them to leave London to return to Israel. In this new life, Michael and Rebecca will try to forget the past and rebuild a new normal.
But that calm, somewhat imposed, is soon disturbed by a strange presence. One day, Rebecca approaches a small well in the garden of the house. From the bottom of the well, rescue an old rag doll. The doll is in such bad condition, that his father, against the girl's wishes, gets rid of it. This decision, will soon prove wrong when another girl, Russia, starts wandering around the house. The strangest thing of all is that only Rebecca can see it.
Screenwriter Rami Musa Alayan said that the idea for this film came from his own personal experience.. As happens to some of the characters in the film, like so many Palestinians in the same situation, Their families had to leave their home due to the Israeli presence in the late 1940s.. One day the Alayan brothers were visiting the house of their ancestors when a car with American passengers stopped in front of the house., willing to occupy it. A girl was traveling in the car..
Although at the beginning of the projection it may distract us, A house in Jerusalem puts at the center of the story the historical confrontation between Palestinians and Israelis since they settled in this area of the Middle East after the conclusion of the Second World War. But, unlike other productions, The film avoids direct description of the conflict and anchors itself to the fantasy genre to develop its proposal.. This allows Muayad Alayan to move away from the forms of the realistic story to play with allegorical elements that serve the discourse of the story.. A decision that, although it gives originality to the proposal, achieving, besides, truly disturbing moments, It is not always right in this approach in a film that is often predictable and which is burdened by production conditions that reveal some shortcomings..
However, The piece is viewed with some pleasure thanks to the solvency of a libretto whose structure, more than its formal materialization, manages to maintain the viewer's interest, perhaps more attentive to reveal certain mysteries in a game of who's who, that due to its political background.
A house in Jerusalem It is above all a kind piece, that tinkers with gender elements to decorate a message that speaks to us, above all, of reconciliation. Once the first impression is over and Rebecca begins to feel comfortable with her new friend, both will support each other to solve their problems: grief and guilt over the loss of mother, In Rebecca's case, the debt with a lost past, in Rasha's. And although both belong to different sides of this conflict, mutual understanding will lead them to unite.
Yes in Riverbed, The silence was caused by the lack of communication, here that silence is imposed by the future of the political interests that, although it seems far from the action, its hand is perceived in the daily lives of people. However, silence is never completely silent. And the past leaves traces, deep wounds, from which we will not be able to get rid. Given the situation that the area is currently experiencing, maybe it's worth watching this movie, even to rescue the gaze of these girls who, beyond death, of the walls and the distance, It tells us that there is always another solution. GERARDO LEON
