"There is no culture document that is not at the time of barbarism." The phrase a thousand times cited and in its prophetic way before the worst of the prophecies of the 20th century could well serve to frame 'Blanco en blanco' , the film with which the Spanish-Chilean director Théo Court won the best director award at the Orizzonti section of the last Venice Festival and which opens this Friday. The film tells of a genocide, that of the Selknam in Tierra del Fuego, at the end of a continent without a doubt extreme. But beyond the patterned reconstruction of horror, what matters is to follow the tracks always rewritten and always erased from a story that, despite its brutality, is always forgotten. Hence, the color albo doubled in the title that like a blanket of snow, or a bank of fog, or a blank page, covers everything. Even the deepest scars of the past, which, by force, are also those of the present.
"It all started," says the director, "looking at the photos in which the Romanian engineer Julio Popper had himself portrayed with his victims. Who is the author? Who is the photographer behind the camera? Is he innocent? " And the questions remain on the screen: Can a performance be innocent? And is the cinema itself, with its arrogant neutrality, not condemned by force? In effect, over this maze of questions a film rises and tangles that is at the same time a reflection on the cruelty of civilization, on the sense of progress, on the wounds of culture and, indeed, on representation itself.
The chronicles tell that in just under two decades, out of a population of 4,000 indigenous people, only 500 were left. Everything happened between 1880 and 1905. The Selknam were literally massacred, among others and first, by the Asturian landowner José Menéndez Menéndez . "There is documentation," says Court, "that you paid for every Indian ear you got. The problem is that too many natives began to be seen without an ear. So the required trophy became either the testicles or the breasts . " Popper's daguerreotypes display proud hunters with their victims at their feet. The Selkmans did not understand private property and soon learned that it is much easier to hunt a sheep than a guanaco, which they always captured until the arrival of the white man. And that was his downfall. "But his misfortune was even deeper," corrects the director. "The Church 'took pity ' on them in its own way and welcomed them into their properties until they became slaves. They could not escape. Outside, certain death awaited them."
The film places Chilean actor Alfredo Castro in the shoes of that anonymous photographer who is both a privileged witness and executor of perhaps eternal barbarism. And from there, from the point of view that points out both the protagonist and the cinema itself as guilty, the director proposes, not by chance, a ' western '; a ' western ' of virgin lands and men bent on building a new world; a ' western ' that faces the limit of the border as the ultimate horizon of what is known, of what appears on the maps, of what makes sense; a ' western ' in the extreme south of hell, Tierra del Fuego, of the geography of the darkest aberrations of the human being.
AMERICA FORGED IN HORROR
"My intention was never to make a period movie. Even if it is. It was not about talking about the past, although what is said happened long ago. The only motivation is the present and how we have raised our well-being on the greatest atrocities. America, but not only America, was forged on horror. And the fact that this, like so many other stories, is forgotten or relativized or not given importance points us as guilty, "he says. Are you in favor of reviewing history and its monuments? "It is enough that we remember it and that we are aware, without shame, that behind all colonization there is a long list of murders."
On the general plot that deals with an entire town and an eternal crime, ' Blanco en blanco' weaves a murky and very personal tale. The photographer is hired to portray the bride and future wife, even if she is just a girl, of the owner, of the landowner. And in the intimate relationship the story of another violence arises, that of man over woman, that of the adult over childhood. In some way, it is an abuse (that of the story in capital letters) that is reflected in the other (that of a thousand small violations). "It is always a power relationship that has to do with manipulation, embezzlement, storytelling and image," concludes the director.
The result is a carefully calculated film that turns the staging into a space for reflection. And not exactly blank. The film moves stealthily across the screen rather than as an enigma, rather than as a question mark thrown at the viewer's face. Looking, and more so when it comes to such horror, was never innocent. "The question that should be asked is why this story is not better known in Chile or Argentina or, of course, in any part of the world," says Court.
Walter Benjamin said , of him is the quotation mark above, that "thus, as always was the custom, the booty is dragged in the middle of the parade of triumph. And they call it cultural property". Well that.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more- movie theater
- culture
- Chile
- America
- history
CultureReturn History so that no one is offended: when the past is overwhelmed by the present
CineSilvia Abril: "Vox is a joke, but a bad joke"
CineMiguel Molina: "On the decline? No, I'm just really wasted"
See links of interest
- Last News
- English translator
- TV programming
- Quixote
- Work calendar
- Daily horoscope
- Santander League Ranking
- League calendar
- TV Movies
- Themes