2018, 96min, 4K, Color, Mexico, Greece, Dominican Republic
Veracruz in Mexico is the type of port city where everybody is from somewhere else and plans to head of by boat for yet another place. But Ramin from Iran is stuck: with little money, no knowledge of Spanish, few friends and only occasional, casual labouring work, he is assailed by longings and memories. He carries with him only some music (by Kourosh Yaghmaei), a notebook, and a photo of the boyfriend he left behind; a Skype chat with him at an Internet café is frustrating and inconclusive. Can Ramin dare to explore his gay sexuality, in a new way, in this foreign place, where macho and queer (as embodied by fellow worker Guillermo) are so diffcult to tell apart? Eschewing flashbacks to Ramin’s Iranian background, Bani Khoshnoudi splits the narrative to follow both him and resilient local hotel manager Leti, disquieted as she awaits the return visit of her former lover, an insensitive guy who’s now a Texan resident with a small son. Superbly directed, LUCIÉRNAGAS is a film about tentative communication, flashes of empathy, the diffcult, daily process of tolerance and love in a precarious world. Yet even in the least comforting of places, the fireflies of desire beckon.
– Adrian Martin, film critic
Ramin flees from persecution in Iran and ends up living in the limbo of exile, far from everything he knows, in the tropical port town of Veracruz, Mexico. There his nostalgia and melancholy are confronted with new friendships, while he starts to rediscover his own desires.
Prizes
Ariel Award for Best Actress (Mexican Academy Award), 2020
HBO Best Ibero-American Feature film, Miami Film Festival, 2019
Best Actor and Special Jury Mention, Mostra Latinamericano de Cine de Catalunya, Lleida, 2019
Best Feature Film at Burgas Film Festival, Bulgaria, 2019
Prix Cine+ (Canal+) – Cinema in Construction, Toulouse, 2018
Screenings
Morelia International Film Festival, Mexican Competition, 2018
Rotterdam International Film Festival (Voices), 2019
Göteborg International Film Festival, International Competition, 2019
FICUNAM, Ahora Mexico Competition, 2019
Miami International Film Festival – Ibero-American Competition, 2019
Toulouse Cinélatino (International Competition), 2019
Festival de Cabourg (International Competition), 2019
Filmfest München (Competition), 2019
Viennale, 2019
Thessaloniki International Film Festival, 2019
Burgas International Film Festival (Feature competition), 2019
OUTFEST Los Angeles, 2019
Frameline San Francisco, 2019
Chéries Chéris, Paris, 2019
Credits
Written and directed by: Bani Khoshnoudi
Script consultant: Israel Cárdenas
Produced by: Elsa Reyes, Bani Khoshnoudi, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Israel Cárdenas, Janja Kralj
Director of Photography : Benjamin Echazarreta
Editing: Miguel Schverdfinger
Art direction: Florent Vitse
Sound: Félix Blume, Javier Umpierrez, Jaime Baksht, Michele Coutellenc
Music: Sohrab, Koroush Yaghmaei
Cast: Edwarda Gurrola, Arash Marandi, Luis Alberti
Produced by Zensky Cine, Pensée Sauvage Films, Haos Film, Aurora Dominicana
With support from Foprocine (Mexico), Hubert Bals Fund Plus Europe, Ibermedia
Filmed in Veracruz, Mexico.
BANI KHOSHNOUDI 