Synopsis ElĂas has committed a sin against God and he fears he will be punished. He is convinced that God’s wrath will manifest itself in the premature death of his eight children. In order to change his family’s destiny and earn God’s forgiveness, he chooses to live in seclusion and dedicates his life to the construction of a church… The story is told through the eyes of ElĂas’s youngest and most vulnerable son Aureliano, who portrays the family saga in religious paintings. Yet it is ElĂas’s mistakes which change the course of events, not God’s vengeance. The director was initially prompted to make the film after discovering the diaries of the philosopher Sören Kierkegaard, who describes his fear of being condemned to a premature death by his father. Events unfolding during the 20th century helped the filmmaker to transfer the story from a Protestant environment to a Catholic and Mexican setting, and, in a historical context, to portray a film image of irrational religious insanity.
Awards Guadalajara Mexican Film Festival 2008. Audience Award, MEZCAL Award, Best Actor (Mario Zaragoza), Best Actress (Dolores Heredia), Best Cinematography, Best Film, Best Screenplay
Directors Biography Rodrigo Plá was born in Montevideo, Uruguay and studied at the Centro de CapacitaciĂłn Cinematográfica in Mexico City. He went on to direct short films including Novia MĂa (1996) and El Ojo en la Nuca (2000). He made two feature films based on his own screenplay, written with his wife, the author and screenwriter Laura Santullo: the thriller The Zone (2007), which won Best Debut at the 64th Venice Biennale, and his next film The Desert Within (2008).
Location and screening schedule: matinee: SC Cinema, Wednesday, October 22nd at 9.00 premiere: SC Cinema, Wednesday, October 22nd at 20.00 reprisal: EUROPA Cinema, Thursday, October 23rd at 10.00
