‘Winter is coming’ is a fact-based menace in Emiliano Torres’ award-winning film
POINTS: 8
“In the northwest of Santa Cruz, the part of Patagonia where the story is set, every daily activity is an ordeal. Travelling, getting food or fuel, communications, they’re all acts of survival. I find that interesting because it all becomes very simple, essential, and almost primitive. At the same time, the rural workers in Patagonia go there in search of a better future or they are simply running away from something,” says Argentine filmmaker Emiliano Torres.
His more than promising debut feature El invierno (“The Winter”) won the Special Jury Prize and Silver Shell for Best Cinematography at the recent San Sebastián Film Festival, and Best Actor for veteran Alejandro Sieveking and the French Critics’ Award at Biarritz.
A story of survivors, Torres’ El invierno is about the fate of two men who cross paths — but not in the best of ways.
First, you have Evans (Alejandro Sieveking), an old foreman on a Patagonian ranch who welcomes a group of workers for the shearing season; a scenario that’s the same year after year. But this time, at the end of the season, the man is sacked from his job and replaced by Jara (Cristian Salguero), a young ranch hand from the north. Needless to say, the change won’t be easy for either of them. The old foreman is at odds with a life with nothing to do and no place to belong to, whereas the young ranch hand has a hard time adapting to his new tasks. And they both will have to survive the coming winter.
Far from conveying a bucolic image of Patagonia filled with penguins, lagoons, and whales — you know, the sort of thing you see in glossy brochures — nature in El invierno is as ominous as it is menacing. Not only because of the ever inclement weather, but because here nature is seen in strict relation to the appalling conditions that rural seasonal workers are subjected to. The work itself is harsh and underpaid, and on top of that you have an environment that makes it all the more unbearable.
A remarkable asset in El invierno is that Torres never overstates his points. He exposes the aridness of the work when strictly required and in a matter-of-fact manner. He doesn’t do so through the prism of melodrama or agit-prop, just like he doesn’t demonize the bosses and owners of the ranch houses. As individuals, they’re not really to blame because they are parts of an agricultural model for a country and its politics. In this sense, El invierno is as far from overtly political cinema as it could possibly be.
Another gripping trait is the realistic approach, both in contents and in cinematic form. While eschewing extreme gritty realism and yet never falling into precious formalism, the cinematography renders Patagonia through a documentary-like eye of outmost precision. Some images are actually breathtaking but not because of their inherent beauty — these are not postcards, after all — but instead because of their dramatic and emotional impact. The characters and what happens to them dominate the scenario and not the other way around.
It’s very rare for a novel filmmaker not to fall into the temptation of depicting such gorgeous landscapes with all sorts of stylistic flourishes, but Torres knows better than that and rightfully goes for the essence of things.
So first and foremost what you have are two lead characters who, with economy of actions and even less dialogue, are nonetheless rather nuanced. There’s a backstory for each, which significantly adds to their persona, and yet it is barely exposed rather than fully developed in order to avoid unnecessary narrative digressions. It goes without saying that none of these withdrawn characters would have come across as they do hadn’t they been played by such assured actors. In tune with the overall approach, the performances by Sieveking and Salguero are devoid of mannerism, and so seek to render acting invisible. Even when such effect is not always achieved, the overall result is quite compelling. For the most part, you believe them without any hesitations.
It’s also true that very occasionally El invierno may be a bit too leisurely-paced. But don’t get me wrong, it’s not that its tempo itself is slow, but instead that the contemplative stance expected from viewers is not always fed enough substance. However, such a minor misstep is compensated by so many other things executed with commendable precision.
Production notes
El invierno (“The Winter”, Argentina/France, 2016). Directed by Emiliano Torres. Written by Emiliano Torres, Marcelo Chaparro. With Alejandro Sieveking, Cristian Salguero, Adrián Fondari, Pablo Cedrón, Mara Bestelli. Cinematography: Ramiro Civita. Editing: Alejandro Brodersohn. Running time: 93 minutes.
@pablsuarez
