LOS SILENCIOS
Brazil/Colombia/France, 2018
Director: Beatriz Seigner
Spanish and Portuguese with English subtitles | 88 min
New Directors
OPENING NIGHT FILM & PARTY
Thursday, August 22 | 7 PM | SFU Woodward’s
Welcome Ceremony from Russell Wallace & family
An excerpt from nómadas by Henry Daniel, performed by Montserrat Videla will precede the film.
Followed by the OPENING NIGHT PARTY at the FOX CABARET
with music by Quinta Kalavera and special guest DJs
Repeat screening of LOS SILENCIOS
preceded by PAULA’S ETERNITY
Saturday, August 24 | 1 PM | Cinematheque
Nuria, Fabio and their mother, Amparo, arrive on a small island of huts built on rickety stilts in the middle of the Amazon jungle, on the border between Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. The island is a gathering place for refugees from many places. The family have recently escaped from the armed conflict in Colombia where the father disappeared. Amparo must struggle for justice for her family and her missing husband, while trying to find a home, a job and enrollment at the local school. Until one day, the father mysteriously reappears in their new home. Through striking, atmospheric visuals, Los Silencios creates an exquisitely moving story of a small family caught up in the immensity of the refugee crisis.
Nuria, Fabio y su madre, Amparo, llegan a una pequeña isla en mitad de la Amazonía, en la frontera entre Brasil, Colombia y Perú, escapando del conflicto armado colombiano. Su padre no tuvo la misma suerte. Amparo hace lo que puede para crear una nueva vida para su familia y conseguir justicia para su marido, hasta que un día éste reaparece en su nueva casa. La familia vive atormentada por este extraño secreto y descubre que la isla está poblada por fantasmas.
…a sensitively observed, patience-rewarding artful sophomore feature from Brazilian writer-director Beatriz Seigner. Though the ongoing tragedy of the Colombian armed conflict weighs heavily on this intimate portrait of a family riven by it, Seigner’s film isn’t politically portentous. Instead, it uses topical scene-setting for a more lyrical meditation on the liminal nature of refugee identity, drifting into the supernatural to ponder the everyday struggle of living with death in more ways than one. – Guy Lodge, Variety
Director’s Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival, 2018
Best Artistic Contribution, Havana Film Festival, 2018
Jury Award, Best Director, Brazilia Festival of Brazilian Cinema, 2018
Impact Award, Stockholm Film Festival, 2018
Filmography: Bollywood Dream (2010)