Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

July 4 - 12, 2008

The Desert Within
Desierto adentro

Colour, 35 mm
Mexico, 2008, 112 min
Section: Open Eyes

Film screenings:
2E1 - 5.7., 10:00, Espace Dorleans Cinema
4R3 - 7.7., 16:30, Richmond Cinema
7P3 - 10.7., 16:30, Cinema GH Pupp

Director: Rodrigo Plá
Screenplay: Laura Santullo, Rodrigo Plá
Dir. of Photography: Serguei Saldívar Tanaka
Music: Jacobo Lieberman, Leonardo Heiblum
Designer: Gloria Carrasco, Antonio Plá, Juan José Medina, Rita Basulto
Editor: Ana García, Rodrigo Plá
Producer: Germán Méndez, Rodrigo Plá
Production: IMCINE – Mexican Film Institute, FOPROCINE
Sales: FilmSharks Int’l
Contact: IMCINE – Mexican Film Institute

Cast

Mario Zaragoza, Diego Cataño, Memo Dorantes, Eileen Yañez, Luis Fernando Peña, Jimena Ayala

Synopsis

Elías has committed a sin against God and he fears he will be punished. He is convinced that God’s wrath will manifest itself in the premature death of his eight children. In order to change his family’s destiny and earn God’s forgiveness, he chooses to live in seclusion and dedicates his life to the construction of a church… The story is told through the eyes of Elías’s youngest and most vulnerable son Aureliano, who portrays the family saga in religious paintings. Yet it is Elías’s mistakes which change the course of events, not God’s vengeance. At least some of his children begin to realise that their father blames God for his inability to forgive others and, above all, himself... The director was initially prompted to make the film after discovering the diaries of the philosopher Sören Kierkegaard, who describes his fear of being condemned to a premature death by his father. Events unfolding during the 20th century helped the filmmaker to transfer the story from a Protestant environment to a Catholic and Mexican setting, and, in a historical context, to portray a film image of irrational religious insanity. The film closed International Critics’ Week at Cannes this year.

About the director

Rodrigo Plá (b. 1968, Montevideo) was born in Uruguay, but has found a niche alongside major Mexican filmmakers. He studied at the Escuela Activa de Fotografía y Vídeo and, in 1987, completed a course in film screenwriting and direction at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC). A year later he made his first short film, Moira. He is credited as assistant director on the remarkable film Benjamin’s Woman (1991). He launched his international career with the film My Girlfriend (1995), which won Best Short Film at the festivals in Biarritz and Mexico. He won a Student Oscar and an Ariel award in Mexico for Eyes in the Back of One’s Head (2001). He made two feature films based on his own screenplay, written with his wife, the author and screenwriter Laura Santullo: the thriller The Zone (2007), which won Best Debut at the 64th Venice Biennale, and his next film The Desert Within (2008).

Film Guests

Rodrigo Plá

Contacts

FilmSharks Int'l
Av. Díaz Vélez 4323, 1200 Buenos Aires
Argentina
Tel: +54 11 6380 3803
Fax: +54 11 6380 3803
E-mail: alpha@filmsharks.com
www: www.filmsharks.com

IMCINE - Mexican Film Institute
Insurgentes Sur 674, 2nd Floor, Col. Del Valle, 03100 Mexico City
Mexico
Tel: +52 55 544 853 44
Fax: +52 55 544 853 80
E-mail: promint@imcine.gob.mx
www: www.imcine.gob.mx

Main navigation

Logginig-in

New registration

Send password

KV IFF Partners

Play video

Press conference - Terribly Happy / Frygtelig Lykkelig

Hot tips

Karlovy Vary IFF 2009

The 44th Karlovy Vary IFF will be held from July 3 – 11, 2009.

Call for Entries

The application deadline for the 44th Karlovy Vary IFF is April 17, 2009 ...

Festival Daily

Festival guests

Stars and filmmakers (film directors, actors) are again coming to Karlovy Vary to introduce their films personally ...

Statistics KV IFF 2008

Up-to-date information about the issued accreditations and festival passes and issued and sold tickets is available here ...

Newsletters

Are you planning to attend the Karlovy Vary IFF? Do not miss any news at our website ...

RSS