Filmmaker Varone masters the art of subtlety in his debut feature Camino a La Paz
Points: 8
“Camino a La Paz is a tale about the meeting of two antagonistic persons, two cultures and two ways of being in the world. That is to say, an opportunity for mutual learning as a trip from Buenos Aires to La Paz brings together two men who find themselves in very different moments in their lives,” says filmmaker Francisco Varone about his sensitive debut feature Camino a La Paz, winner of the Bronze Alexander Award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival and that also won Ernesto Suárez the Best Argentine Breakthrough Performance Actor Award at the Mar del Plata International Film Festival.
Sebastián (Rodrigo De La Serna) is a newly married 35-year-old man whose main obsessions are his car, an old Peugeot 505 SR, and the music band Vox Dei. Jobless and somewhat unsettled, he’s in urgent need of cash and so he starts working as a gypsy cab driver. It fits like a glove: it’s not a tough job and it allows him to be with his beloved car at all times. What he didn’t expect is that he would soon be making a 3,000-km trip from Buenos Aires to La Paz, Bolivia.
It so happens that one of his new clients, Jalil (Ernesto Suárez), an Argentine Muslim, is in dire need to visit his brother who lives in La Paz. And for medical reasons, he can only do the trip by car. Of course, he doesn’t drive either. So when Jalil asks Sebastián to take him to La Paz, Sebastián first says it’s out of the question. But, you know, the money is pretty good and the old man is as harmless as he is honest. It’s a piece of cake.
So off they go en route to La Paz. Yet if Sebastián had only known the many obstacles they’d find on the road, he’d have never taken such a ride. But there’s no point in crying over spilled milk: after all, road movies are all about curves and hurdles. Meaningful long trips are filled with some or many unexpected difficulties and occurrences, which eventually give rise to meaningful inner transformations for those who have embarked on the trips. So you have to see the outer journey as a metaphor for the inner one, and consider that often times the end result is far from what the travellers had envisioned prior to departure. Like the cycles of life itself, if you will.
And while Camino a La Paz is not what you’d call a breakthrough in the history of road movies, the truth is it doesn’t have to be one. More precisely, it doesn’t want to be one. Instead, what you have is an accomplished genre piece which effortlessly follows predetermined narrative conventions and almost always makes the most out of the vicissitudes on the road. And it does so in a subtle way, with no stridence. Director Varone knows better than to have his characters utter pretentious truths or enlightening messages to viewers.
With a notable sense of spontaneity and naturalism, Camino a La Paz draws a moderately nuanced portrayal of two individuals at odds with their lives. Sebastián and Jalil are not hopelessly sunk in acute crisis, which makes them particularly appealing since their dilemmas come across as more immediate and ordinary. It’s the bond they establish that gives the film its nobility, and it’s no coincidence that such a bond looks and sounds so real since Varone has done a terrific job in coaching his actors in order to have them develop the essential chemistry for the story. You can even sometimes feel the real exhaustion of the trip in their faces, voices, and gestures.
The invisible editing by Alberto Ponce and Federico Peretti keeps the film unfolding at a precise rhythm that’s neither fast nor slow, just like the unobtrusive camerawork by Christian Cottet captures the actors’ most expressive moments and more. In synch, Manuel de Andrés provides a realistic sound design and properly brings to the foreground what matters the most, and last but not least, the art direction by Daniela Podcaminsky gives the film an unmistakable air of its time as great atmosphere is achieved with few elements.
Production notes
Camino a La Paz (Argentina, the Netherlands, Germany, 2014). Written and directed by Francisco Varone. With Rodrigo De La Serna, Ernesto Suárez, Elisa Carricajo, María Canale. Cinematography: Christian Cottet. Editing: Alberto Ponce, Federico Peretti. Running time: 94 minutes.
@pablsuarez
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