Loner Martín has been given the simple task of housesitting for his successful cousin, who left with his family on a long trip abroad. But then the mysterious environment starts to work its magic and Martín finds himself creating his own virtual family. But isn’t his fabrication, in fact, more real than the fragile illusion of the family nest temporarily vacated by its residents?
A seemingly contented and stable family goes to spend a few months in Paris. The camera then surprisingly lingers in the empty family home in the company of loner Martín, a distant relative who is housesitting in their absence and keeping an eye on the cat. Forty years of age, with no wife, no children or regular employment, Martín had originally intended to use his new base as somewhere to reflect as he tries to come to terms with his father’s death. The empty nest, however, begins to work its magic on the new arrival, awakening in him unimagined and unavoidable desires. He unwittingly starts behaving as if he were no stranger to household routine. When single mother Pachi appears on the scene, on impulse and without fear of the consequences, Martín introduces her to a family set-up entirely of his own creation, while the absent occupants of the house are none the wiser… This highly original romance skilfully toys with the family as an instinctively or, conversely, artificially cohesive unit whose significance becomes mysteriously inverted in the extraordinary setting of an entirely ordinary household.
Jakub Jiřiště
81 min / Color, DCP
Director Alicia Scherson, Cristián Jiménez
/ Screenplay Alejandro Zambra, Alicia Scherson, Cristián Jiménez
/ Dir. of Photography Cristián Petit-Laurent
/ Music Caroline Chaspoul, Eduardo Henríquez
/ Editor Soledad Salfate
/ Art Director Jorge Zambrano
/ Producer Carlos Olivares, Fernando Bascuñán
/ Production Peso Pluma
/ Cast Jorge Becker, Gabriela Arancibia, Blanca Lewin, Cristián Carbajal
/ Sales Visit Films
Alicia Scherson (b. 1974, Santiago, Chile) and Cristián Jiménez (b. 1975, Valdivia, Chile) are highly original players on the current Chilean film scene and both are regular fixtures at prestigious film festivals. The Karlovy Vary fest helped audiences discover Alicia’s talent, presenting its Independent Camera Award for her debut Play (2005). Her unconventional romance Tourists (Turistas, 2009) was included in the main competition at the Rotterdam IFF, and Sundance has also programmed her work. Jiménez’s output has enjoyed huge success – the award-winning poetic romantic comedy Bonsai (2011) was selected for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, and his penultimate film, the unsettling family drama Voice Over (La Voz en Off, 2014), received its world premiere in the main competition at San Sebastián.
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