San Sebastian Festival: “Nosotros nunca moriremos”, the story of mourning

"Nosotros nunca moriremos" is a film presented in official selection at the 68th edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival: young Rodrigo (poster) and his mother mourn a brother, a son.

https://www.sansebastianfestival.com/

Text by: Isabelle Le Gonidec

5 mins

Among the heavyweights of the official section of films in competition at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, such as François Ozon or Thomas Vinterberg, there are also more unexpected films, by young directors like the Argentinian Eduardo Crespo.

Nosotros nunca moriremos, We will never die, is the story of a mourning worn by a mother and her young boy in deep Argentina.

A film on the line, fair and curiously light.

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From our special correspondent in San Sebastian,

The body of a young man was found in the forest by a gaucho who was raising his bird cages.

The mother and the young brother of the deceased go there to understand what happened, meet his relatives, his work colleagues, resume the story of Alexis - the missing - interrupted when he left home to work.

And bury it.

Of them, of their biography, we will not know anything, they are people like any other, it could be the director's family who, to build the characters, fed on the mourning of his father, he says.

We are in the province of Entre Rios, the native region of Eduardo Crespo (which bears the name of the village in the film), in a rural Argentina where life flows to the rhythm of the footsteps of horses or mopeds.

In a world frugal with words, but no feelings, where we are silent as we breathe.

A somewhat ghostly world where not much is happening.

Eduardo Crespo, director of the film Nosotros nunca moriremos, presented in the official selection in San Sebastian.

© Alex Abril-Festival de San Sebastian

The relatives of Alexis are the opportunity to paint a gallery of moving characters in their banality, real people in real life: Alexis' young colleague who makes a machine for dialogue with the cosmos, the golf boss with his dyed hair and raven wing mustache, Alexis' girlfriend who believes she can work miracles.

Throughout their stories, Alexis comes to life.

We discover his readings, we see him at his workplace, his work as a volunteer firefighter.

There are some funny moments in the film and a particularly moving sequence where - guarding the night at the fire station - he reads a text to his girlfriend who listens to it on the walkie-talkie.

And all the other firefighters listen to him too.

From the depths of night, from the depths of death, this text seems to be read from the beyond.

What is there after death for that matter?

Young Rodrigo questions his mother after discovering a Bible in the drawer of the nightstand of their modest hotel.

He also wants to revive Alexis so much that he lends himself to an experience of cosmic connection with his brother.

His wish follows the endless electric wires of the plains of Entre Rios.

Eduardo Crespo's images are beautiful and without pomposity bring a breath to the story.

Rodrigo walks with his grieving mother, shares her quest and gradually gains the ascendancy as she loses her footing in grief.

He grows up over the ordeal, comes out of childhood - get behind the wheel of the car - and has a detailed story.

The actors are very accurate and have a great physical presence.

Eduardo Crespo entrusted the role of mother to trans actress Romina Escobar who had notably played in the film

by Santiago Loza on which Eduardo Crespo was director of photography.

The two filmmakers often worked together.

This new role, which Romina Escobar plays with great accuracy and restraint, allows her to get out of the “trans” box.

The same Santiago Loza is on this latest film producer and co-writer.

, from Crespo to the rest of the world.

A film and a director to follow.

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