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PREMIERES 2012


REVIEWS


FORUM


Mex-Uru-Fr. 2012. 84mins Director Rodrigo Pla Production company Lulu Producciones, Malbicho Cine International sales Artscope/Memento Films International, www. memento-films.com Producers Christian Valdelievre, Sandino Saravia Vinay, Rodrigo Pla Screenplay Laura Santullo Cinematography Maria Secco Editor Miguel Shverdfinger Production designer Mariana Pereira Music Jacobo Lieberman, Leonardo Heiblum Main cast Roxana Blanco, Carlos Vallarino


The Delay REVIEWED BY DAN FAINARU


This bleak, uncompromising piece of film-making finds Rod- rigo Pla in a very different mood from his earlier films, La Zona and The Desert Within (Desierto Adentro). A powerful, realistic drama about a physically and mentally


impaired old man and the daughter who cares for him, this is not only a closely observed psychological portrait of the rela- tionship between them but more than that, a moving social study of penury at work, destroying the fabric of a family. Festi- val exposure is the only real route for this film. No concessions are made here to gain anyone’s sympathy,


one possible exception being a final moment of attempted grace and even that is only partial relief. The entire plot of The Delay (La Demora) focuses on the confrontation between two charac- ters — Agustin Suarez (Vallarino), who lives with his daughter Maria (Blanco), a single mother. Whether or not it is simply his age or an early touch of some


form of dementia, Agustin is confused and forgetful, arthritic and unable to take care of himself. He gets lost easily once he is on his own. He often lives in the past more than he does in the present and yet has some flashes of lucidity every once in a while. Maria is a seamstress working at home for a pittance, har-


assed by the needs of her three children — a teenage girl and two younger boys — and her father’s handicaps. She has no-one to turn to, certainly not her sister who claims she cannot share the responsibility for their ailing parent. If this sounds like Latin melodrama, forget about it. Neither


the script nor the direction wallows in unnecessary sentimental- ity. Grimly sticking to the drab facts of Agustin and Maria’s life, it never tries to paint them either better or worse than they really are. They simply ring true. The defeated, terrified look which never leaves Carlos Vallari-


no’s eyes reflects the insecurity of each and every one of his acts, and is matched by Blanco’s restrained performance, her haunted face, the tension building inside her as she is trying to cope with circumstances beyond her control until she keels under them. Pla’s empathy for both is evident and palpable. And to his


credit, they look like real people grappling with real life. It may not be pretty to see — but who said life always is?


n 16 Screen International at the Berlinale February 12, 2012


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