SFF: Peru I really liked Ricardo de Monreil’s debut directorial work, so I decided to watch another drama, which was in 2008 at Sundance in the program “World Cinema”. Russian-speaking viewers can be content only with Spanish and subtitles, which is already great, since the film is little known. But you can admire the landscapes of Mancora. After all, this is one of the most popular beach resorts in Peru, where surfers and just lovers of lying on the beach gather all year round.
If you choose one word that describes the essence of the film, it will be “responsibility”. The tagline itself already hints at this: "Sometimes paradise has a price." The film begins with Santiago being beaten on a pier and thrown into the water. Only then we are returned two weeks back to show the whole way that brought the protagonist to the bottom in a literal and figurative sense. The parents of 21-year-old Santiago divorced. At first, his mother died, and then his father failed to cope with depression and committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. The stepsister and her husband came to Lima to support her brother, and together they go to Mancora to unwind.
You won’t find anything special in this movie. An ordinary author’s drama about life and the fact that every event has certain consequences. The pleasant picture and the cast are not bad, but still the film lacks the highlight to be remembered by the audience. Although there were some unexpected twists in the story. Like the scene with my sister on the beach. Personally, I liked the drama "My Brother's Wife" much better. But you can look at this one, too. After all, Peruvian films do not often reach our borders with translation.
6 out of 10