Another View 2013 / Halley / Mexico, Netherlands 2012
Alberto’s body is decomposing and he is no longer able to cover up the sores with make-up or copious swathes of dressing. Sometimes you just feel like opting out of life altogether, and sometimes you simply don’t have any other option. With its shades of gothic horror, this story presents a mesmeric hero and an intriguing fabric of truly unexpected metaphors and twists of plot.
Death can sometimes manifest itself as a truly hideous illness. Alberto is well aware of this. Life has sucked him dry but he still struggles to hold on, masking his sores and wounds with make-up and bandages. But the time will come when nothing more can be done and he’ll end up in the morgue. But it isn’t necessarily all over for him yet – particularly when a colleague from work takes a shine to him.... This stylistically confident film establishes the director’s roots in the fine arts, and his method of constructing Alberto’s story points to a clear sense of vision. A mildly grotesque gothic horror with allegorical undertones, the movie keeps its viewers guessing and, through its curious stylisation, casting the plot in unchanging, idealised twilight hues, succeeds in shifting the story onto another level. When Alberto is given an unexpected impulse, he acts upon it with scornful resignation, facing a metaphor of a world which has nothing left to offer. Because, while we all have to deal with the reality of our own lives, Alberto has already suffered a major decline and has now come to terms with it.
83 min / Color, DCP
Director Sebastián Hofmann
/ Screenplay Sebastián Hofmann, Julio Chavezmontes
/ Dir. of Photography Matías Penachino
/ Music Zaratustra Vazques, Diego Ibañez
/ Editor Sebastián Hofmann
/ Producer Jaime Romandia, Julio Chavezmontes
/ Production Mantarraya Productions, Piano
/ Cast Alberto Trujillo, Lourdes Trueba, Hugo Albores
/ Contact Visit Films
www: www.halleyfilm.com
Sebastián Hofmann (b. 1980, Mexico) is a director, film editor and visual artist. He graduated from the Pasadena Art Center College of Design and has subsequently shown his art work in New York, Sydney, Berlin, Prague and Rio de Janeiro. Hofmann also attended a screenwriting workshop with Todd Solondz. He has created a large number of experimental shorts (including Jaime Tapones, 2010; Los micro burgueses, 2010; También las calles, 2011) and video clips commissioned by Mexican underground bands. His short film Ismael (2011) was premiered at Locarno. Halley, which competed at Rotterdam, was selected for the Sundance programme and is his feature film debut.
Visit Films
140 Havemeyer St., NY 11222, Brooklyn
United States of America
Phone: +1 718 312 8210
Fax: +1 718 362 4865
E-mail: [email protected]
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