By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 5 cats
Director: Lorenzo Vigas
Original language title: Desde Allá
Country: mexico, venezuela
Year: 2016
Running time: 93
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4721400
Bruce says: “My first note for FROM AFAR reads ‘out of focus.’ Little did I know when I wrote it how important focus would be in describing the psychological nature of the protagonist, Armando, played by Alfredo Costa (NO, TONY MANERO, THE CLUB, IT WAS THE SON.) Armando is a 50ish gentleman whose day trade is making dentures. He does see his sister from time to time; otherwise he is a loner. His sole off-hours pastime seems to be street cruising, picking up young men. He takes them home but the sex is voyeuristic, not participative. When he meets Elder one gets the sense that Armando breaks his own unwritten rule by seeing the boy more than once. The second encounter is not so successful. Elder beats Armando badly, grabs his wallet and runs from Armando’s apartment.
“Armando begins to hunt for Elder in the streets. By asking around he gets Elder’s family’s address and goes to the apartment. The door is open and Armando pokes around creepily. One day shortly thereafter, Armando discovers Elder who has been beaten badly. With help from a couple of Elder’s friends they carry Elder back to Armando’s. Armando nurses him back to health. During the convalescence the two men begin to ask personal question of one another. ‘What does your father do?’ Armando asks. Elder answers ‘He’s dead. Is your dad dead?’ ‘To tell the truth, I wish he were,’ replies Armando. Once he is back on his feet Elder first breaks into Armando’s safe, then invites Armando to a quinceañera. ‘I have someone I want you to meet.’ Elder seems nonchalant but Armando is uptight. After Armando is introduced to Elder’s mother, things begin to take another wrong turn.
“While the film is often claustrophobic in mood, Lorenzo Vigas pushes the viewer to step back and look at a larger much larger picture. His main characters are trapped in many ways. They are drawn by feelings they have seemingly been born to fight. They rebel against them only to find that acts of rebellion are reinforcing not liberating. Their Caracas, a somewhat abstract character in the film, is a whirlpool of depression, obsession and fear. If only two people with such deep emotional needs could find a neutral ground.
“Alfredo Costa is superb conveying Armando’s inner self beautifully particularly when his actions belie his feelings. First-time actor Luis Silva projects a raw energy and a subtle emotional desperation which give Elder unusual depth. The cinematography is perfectly aligned with the mood and needs of the characters. FROM AFAR is a very disturbing film. My feelings of empathy and disdain battled one another from start to finish. 5 cats
“FROM AFAR, surprise winner of the Silver Lion at the 2015 Venice Film Festival, screened at the 2015 London Film Festival.”
Kyle says: “Recipient of two international film festival acting prizes for his performance in FROM AFAR, Luis Silva plays an archetypal rough trade garage mechanic street hustler and gang leader, who personifies the masturbatory fantasies of an older Caracas, Venezuela dental prosthetic practitioner played movingly by Alfredo Castro as Armando. The film starts seemingly headed for a cliched story of lonely older man seeking sexual favors with disaffected younger man, but veers affectingly into a more interesting tale of two males connected by universal loneliness but separated by indelible issues of class. Silva captures perfectly the contradictions of Elder, his eyes filled with fear and loathing during his first encounter with Armando, which turns violent, developing into inchoate feelings of caring for someone other than himself, into the final tragic realization that life in modern Venezuela has few opportunities to offer a boy like Elder.”