the films of pablo cesar - Exploring Consciousness

Grey Fire
The Sacred Family
Argentina/Cape Verde
1993/90 min/16 (LNV)
Director: Pablo Cesar
Cast: Maria Victoria
D’Antonio. Christina
Banegas, Arturo Bonin
A scintillating combination
of rock opera and
surrealistic mélange of
Alice through the Looking
Glass and Freud’s Civilisation and its Discontents, as a young girl from
a dysfunctional family, tired of the boredom of her office job falls down
a manhole and discovers herself in a cloacal world of subterranean
beings. With bizarre creatures worthy of Jan Svankmayer and an
extraordinary sequence worthy of Jodorowsky, of hundreds of frogs
descending on a crowded city street, floating down on coloured
parachutes, the film is bursting with originality and verve. The songs
are by Argentina’s famed star of the seventies rock scene Luis ‘El
Flaco’ Alberto Spinetta.
Sun 8: 8.30pm, Wed 11: 6.15pm, Sat 14: 1.45pm
Argentina 1988/ 87 min/18 (SNLV)
Director: Pablo Cesar
Cast: Ariel Bonomi, Nilda Raggi, Harry Havilio
After a catastrophic flood, a rag tag collection of hippies from a rural
commune turn up on the neat lawns of a palatial home in which
representatives of the state, the church and high finance dwell with
their military-minded keeper. Their initial shock at the new arrivals
turns into a sadistic show of charity which progresses into torture,
rape and whole-scale carnage. With clear nods of inspiration to Luis
Bunuel, Pier Paolo Pasolini, De Sade and the Surrealists, the film
is a visually stunning but deeply disturbing attack on the morals of
consumer culture.
Fri 6: 8.30pm, Thurs 12: 6.15pm, Fr 13: 1.45pm
Fuego Gris
Equinox – The Garden
of Roses
Equinoccio – El Jardin de les Roses
Argentina/Tunisia 1991/ 73 min/13 (L)
Director: Pablo Cesar
Cast: Mohamed Goulder, Saida Nasri, Ahmed Hmaied
An angel emerges from the sea on a Tunisian beach and collecting
seven disciples, interferes in the love affair of a young couple, the
appropriation of a magical flute and an attempt to make time stand
still. As much yin as yang - the angel transforms at will, growing
horns - although never losing his wings. Stylistically clearly influenced
by Pasolini’s Trilogy of Life, the film was highly commended at the
time by Pasolini’s close collaborator Laura Betti. The stunning Tunisian
locations are filmed with a ravishing, sun-drenched beauty.
Sat 7: 1.45pm, Mon 16: 6.15pm, Thurs 19: 1.45pm
La Sagrada Familia
Sunday 8th
6.00 Gods Of Water
8.30 Grey Fire
Monday 9th
1.45 Orillas
6.15 Aphrodite
Tuesday 10th
1.45 Gods Of Water
6.15 Hunabku
Wednesday 11th
1.45 Blood
6.15 Grey Fire
Thursday 12th
1.45 Aphrodite
6.15 Sacred Family
Friday 13th
1.45 Sacred Family
6.15 Gods Of Water
Saturday 14th
1.45 Grey Fire
6.15 Orillas
Sunday 15th
1.45 Gods Of Water
6.15 Blood
Monday 16th
1.45 Hunabku
6.15 Equinox
Tuesday 17th
1.45 Orillas
6.15 Gods Of Water
Wednesday 18th
1.45 Gods Of Water
6.15 Aphrodite
Thursday 19th
1.45 Equinox
6.15 Gods Of Water
THE FILMS
OF PABLO
CESAR
THE LABIA THEATRE, CAPE TOWN
Phone 021 424 5927
6th – 19th November 2015
PABLO CESAR Born in Buenos Aires, he began filmmaking
at the age of 13 shooting films on a Super 8mm camera
given to him by his mother who also taught him about
filmmaking techniques. Between 1975 and 1984, he shot
20 short films and 2 features all on Super 8mm. Thereafter
he has shot 9 feature films all shot on 35mm, preferring
the aesthetics of film to digital processes. Specialising
in co-producing with Africa, he has shot films in Tunisia,
Cape Verde, Mali, Ethiopia and Angola. His next film will be
shot in Namibia. He counts as a major influence, the Italian
filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Supported by
the Embassy
of Argentina
Blood –
Secrets of
a Family
The Gods
of Water
Los Dioses de Agua
Sangre – Secrete de Familia
Argentina/Angola 2015/115 min/PG (L)
Director: Pablo Cesar
Cast: Juan Palomino, Charo Bogarin, Boy Olmi
Inspired by the investigations of French ethnologist Marcel Griaule,
Hermes, an Argentinian anthropologist goes to Africa in search
of the possible origins of mankind, created by amphibious beings
from other places in the universe. Supported by Dogon knowledge
of the existence of the Dog Star, he travels to Angola and up the
Kwanza River to Ethiopia in search of the last protectors of this
arcane knowledge. What he finds there is truly apocalyptic and the
extraordinary final visions will have you glued to your seat. Admirers
of Graham Hancock, Colin Wilson, Daniel Pinchbeck and other
modern visionaries will find much to admire here.
Premiere Screening (Bookings on Webticket) in Collaboration
with Exploring Consciousness, briefly introduced by Trevor
Steele Taylor: Sun 8: 6pm. Thereafter Tue 10: 1.45pm, Fri 13:
6.15pm, Sun 15: 1.45pm, Tue 17: 6.15 pm, Weds 18: 1.45pm,
Thurs 19: 6.15 pm
Orillas
Hunabku
El Principio de Todo
Argentina 2007/100 min/PG (L)
Director: Pablo Cesar
Cast: Raul Taibo, Florencia Raggi, Boy Olmi
A young boy, who has a troubled relationship with his father, is
uprooted from his school and friends in Buenos Aires and taken to
remote Patagonia. His father, a mining engineer is totally materialistic
about his profession but the boy senses that beneath the ice of the
frozen wastes lurks a presence which is both mystical and predatory.
He meets a young oriental girl, his own age, who introduces him
to the caves, within the ice where mysteries dwell. Operating in
shimmering landscapes of ice the film will leave you with a sense of
the power of natural forces existing both within the earth and within
the human psyche.
Fri 6: 1.45pm, Tues 10: 6.15pm, Mon 16: 1.45pm
Argentina/Benin 2010/96 min/16 (LVS)
Director: Pablo Cesar
Cast: Javier Lombardo, Dalma Maradona, Daniel Velenzuela
Cutting backwards and forwards between two disparate stories – a
terminally ill boy in Benin, taken by his mother to a shaman in touch
with the ancestors and a young thug in the slums of Buenos Aires –
which merge magically through a spiritual connection going back to
the days of slavery. The music of Argentina from the Tango through to
Jazz is a concrete reminder of the African presence in South America
as are the Shamanic/Christian mélanges of Santeria and others. The
Gods of Benin are at home in Argentina and work a miracle in the
film, in which two youths become one.
Mon 9: 1.45pm, Sat 14: 6.15pm, Tues 17: 1.45pm
Argentina 2003/124 min/16 (LN)
Director: Pablo Cesar
Cast: Guillermo Pfening, Ivonne Fournery, Emiliano Alonso
Winner of Best Actress (Ivonne Fournery) at the Amiens Film Festival,
this is Cesar’s most personal project – a deeply moving story of two
sons (one a filmmaker), their ailing mother and the memories of a
father who died in a freak accident when the boys were children.
Quiet and contemplative, the story clearly has much in it that is
autobiographical and it is in the empathetic delivery of a narrative
that the film excels. The boys’ relationship to their mother is close but
never seen as inappropriate although it does have negative effects on
their own ability to form romantic bonds. The style is reminiscent to
French cinema of the eighties – Alain Resnais in particular.
Sat 7: 8.30pm, Wed 11: 1.45pm, Sun 15: 6.15pm
Aphrodite – The
Garden of Perfumes
Afrodita – El Jardin de los Perfumes
Argentina/Mali 1998/ 86 min /13 (NV)
Director: Pablo Cesar
Cast: Issa Coulibaly, Karamoko Sinayoko, Guibi Ouedrogo
Taking the Greek myths of Hermes and Aphrodite to Mali and
then transforming the essentially female Eros of Aphrodite into a
male body, this ritualistic and homo-erotic translation of classic
mythology across the Mediterranean onto the African plains is a
realization of what Pier Paolo Pasolini attempted with his plans to
film The Oresteia in Africa. With mesmerizing camerawork and an
almost entirely male cast - three females appearing in bizarre boxlike creations only allowing their faces and feet to be seen are the
traditional chorus. Malian music blends into the brown landscape
sharing aural space with the African Mass the Missa Luba.
Mon 9: 6.15pm, Thurs 12: 1.45pm, Wed 18: 6.15pm