Original title: The Whistlers · Corneliu Porumboiu · Romania · 2019 · Script: Corneliu Porumboiu · Interpreters: Vlad Ivanov, Catrinel Marlon, Rodica Lazar…
Original title: The mole agent · Maite Alberdi · Chile · 2020 · Script: Maite Alberdi · Interpreters: Sergio Chamy, Romulo Aitken, Marta Olivares…
It's been a few decades since Romanian cinema came to the forefront of the international scene. Prestigious competitions such as Cannes or Berlin have encouraged directors such as Cristian Mungiu (4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days), Adina Pintilie (Touch me not), Cristi Puiu (Sierra Nevada) Mr. Peter Netzer (The look of the son), names already recognized among the most demanding public and critics. Cine, a few times, of great brilliance, others perhaps less successful, but we must recognize his strong commitment to portraying the reality of his country and its time., as well as his very notable courage when it comes to exploring new frontiers of expressiveness., proof that you don't need big budgets or monstrous industrial structures to reach the top. To this list we must also add the name of Corneliu Porumboiu, without a doubt one of the references of this new generation of filmmakers.
La Gomera, Porumboiu's latest proposal, tells the story of Cristi, a corrupt police inspector who, outside of his work, serves as an infiltrator in the pay of a businessman connected to the local mafia. The businessman's shady dealings end up landing him in jail, fact that will implicate Cristi when the mafia turns to him to prepare the escape of his friend and, with that, recover the money that was defrauded from them. To fulfill the plan, Cristi must travel to the island that gives the film its title (in the version presented in Spanish theaters) to learn a strange sign language: the gomero whistle. Over there, he will meet the businessman's lover again, also an accomplice of this bizarre project, a seductive woman with whom Cristi is in love and with whom, shortly before, had a short-lived relationship.
Con The Gomera, Porumboiu rescues all the elements of the most classic thriller. We have the theft of money whose hiding place must be discovered, a businessman convicted for his greed, a gangster seeking revenge (and get your money back), a corrupt police officer and, of course, a mysterious woman with an intriguing look for whom the hero is willing to sacrifice his life. However, where the Romanian director makes his biggest bet is not so much in the use of these rudiments of the genre, as in the tone he gives to his film. Rough construction cinema, seca, Porumboiu takes little care to smooth the transitions between scenes, He does not dwell on details and goes straight to the core of his story.. All of this, along with a structure that plays with constant leaps in time, may disconcert more than one viewer. However, This mechanism that you propose to us is not at all free.
And this arid tone allows the Romanian director to recreate one of his most precious and exploited resources in his cinema.: the humor. In this sense, We should not be surprised that the film's promotional strategy refers us to the films of the Cohen brothers as a reference that helps us understand what we are facing.. As happens in It's not a country for old people, Porumboiu's film makes sense and is projected in the contrast between the inexpressive attitude, almost hieratic of its characters and the strange situations they face. However, This apparent coldness contains something more than an aesthetic framework and invites us to a social and cultural reflection., we would say, much deeper political and that points directly to the heart of the director's native Romania. Cristi is a corrupt police officer, but it's not just for money, but because he has no other way to get ahead and escape the mediocrity and misery that surrounds him.. Your upper body presents, instead, as a woman of unwavering ethics, But from his actions and few lines of dialogue, there is no great conviction when it comes to defending a system for which he seems to have very little respect.. In La Gomera everyone watches everyone, although above all there looms the presence of an oppressive order whose face we do not see, but what, somehow, acts and from which no one can escape, even fleeing the country. to do it, Cristi must resolve all her conflicts without leaving any loose ends.
But where Porumboiu's film has laid the pillars of its scaffolding is where we also find its greatest imbalances.. As we have already mentioned, La Gomera resorts to many of the clichés of the noir genre. This makes, apart from certain more or less ingenious script solutions that we will not reveal to avoid spoilers, the viewer will find many of the film's premises somewhat hackneyed. The inclusion of that whistle element contributes little to the development of this story.. There will be those who find some hidden reading in this resource, but as far as the evolution of the plot is concerned, it remains an almost whimsical anecdote that contributes little to its development.. Cine, well, of good quality, risky, con ideas, but to whom, on this occasion, lacks the depth of Porumboiu's own previous works, as, For example, The treasure, his previous feature film and, at the moment, ceiling of a still brief filmography, but suggestive and promising.
Also within the noir genre can be included the latest proposal by Chilean director Maite Alberdi. The mole agent tells the case of a strange investigation. A woman seeks the services of a detective to investigate the treatment her mother is receiving in the residence where she is admitted.. The woman suspects that her mother is being poorly cared for by the institution's employees., who steal his few possessions and provide him with poor care. To carry out your investigations, the detective hires, in turn, to an octogenarian who will infiltrate the residence as another inmate.
The mole agent starts like a fictional story. He does it both because of the way he presents the scenes, as well as the fact that behind the images we see on the screen there is a script written and, somehow, some actors playing characters. But, from a certain moment, the film changes format to become a hybrid piece that draws from different sources. So, According to our mole, he is relating to the rest of the residents of the nursing home., the film opens to a form more typical of the documentary. All of this, without completely losing that appearance of fiction, especially in the sequences in which the mole writes the reports that he passes to the detective who has hired him. In that confrontation or aesthetic clash of genres is where the truth that Maite Alberdi wants us to witness arises..
After the presentation of the initial situation, Alberdi's film unfolds in a double path. On the one hand, The mole agent appears as an intimate portrait of the daily life of this nursing home. Alberdi enters one of those spaces that is talked about so much in the media, but about which we know very little. What happens behind the walls of these types of centers? On the other hand, Alberdi's film opens as a low-budget spy story. As in any story of the genre, Sergio looks for evidence of the crime that, in theory, the residence employees have committed. Again, como pasaba en la tape by Corneliu Porumboiu, These elements serve the Chilean director to introduce humor into her proposal., key for its development and on which it relies intelligently in order to lower the tone of the film that, So, appears less serious, allowing you to mark distance, at once, Of any morbid temptation I might have fallen into.
The premises laid, The mole agent It develops as a story of great humanity. Sergio and Alberdi are making contact with the residents who, little by little, They thus become new characters in the plot.. One of the women suffers from Alzheimer's that has taken her back to her childhood.. Another suffers from absences that prevent her from remembering what she did the day before.. Many suffer, at least, severe physical pain or the logical limitations that correspond to their advanced age. In one of the most tender moments of the film, one of these women expresses to the mole her intention to marry him. And in the middle of this coming and going or letting life pass, The residence's employees try to make their stay as comfortable as possible.. At the end of the day, however, The bars of the main door remain behind which the inmates are trapped.
What remains at the end of life?, We are wondering. In one of the most heartbreaking sequences of this film, Sergio talks with one of his new colleagues. Forgotten the presence of the camera, both elderly people share intimacies. The woman gives Sergio a brief summary of her life in which she had four children for whom, dice, He fought to guarantee them a good future. Children that she always considered to be her greatest treasure, especially in the face of this last stage in which, safely, I would need your help and your company. However, The time has come to reap the fruits of so much effort., discovers that he has nothing. “This life is cruel, after all", says the woman with frank resignation. A word flies over the images like a bird of bad omen. Soledad. This is the true mystery that the detective must uncover.
Maite Alberdi has created a work that skillfully moves between two extremes touched by tragedy, aside, and comedy, in the other. Your message is clearly alarming., but the tone he uses keeps us from falling into despair. A work that shakes us inside without appealing to base instincts or banal speeches. Before us, the reality, pura, raw, stark, very human. This is one of the most moving films that have been seen in a movie theater so far this year.. An exquisite job. GERARDO LEON
