2018 / Hybrid experimental, 34 min. / Mexico – Sweden – Denmark
A Zapotec man from the future tells the story of how in the 21st century a new invasion of “foreigners” was afflicting his village. While people in Europe were suffering a crisis that made them lose memory and a sense of their culture, a group of youth in his village in Oaxaca was trying to document their own culture by making a film during Carnival rituals. While the youth are pushed to invite a director from the city to come help them, ultimately changing their project to be a remake of Ingmar Bergman’s THE SILENCE, a Swedish woman comes exploring in search of magical lizards that could be the next remedy for memory crisis back home. Characters mix and stories blend into each other in this absurdist and melancholic lo-fi/sci-fi story narrated as oral history with multiple voices.
Conversation between Athina Rachel Tsangari and Bani Khoshnoudi, November 2019, Vdrome
Screenings
World Premiere – Morelia Film Festival, October 2019, “Cine sin fronteras” curated by Jesse Lerner
International Premiere – VDROME (Art cinema platform)
Credits
Directed by : Bani Khoshnoudi
Script : Bani Khoshnoudi in collaboration with the youth of Taller8
Produced by : Bani Khoshnoudi, Elena Pardo, Beto Ruíz
Director of Photography : Dariela Ludlow
Editing : Bani Khoshnoudi
Art direction : Berenice Guraeib
Sound : Alicia Segovia
Music : Carlos Alvarádo
Cast : Alberto Ruíz, Michael Matus, Javier Lazo Gútierrez, Jessica Santiago Gúzman, Carlos López, Donají Marcial, Ana Sosa, Juan Montaño, Berenice Guraeib, Isabelle Manhes, Antonio Ruíz, Don Porfirio, Fausto Lazo Hernández, Walter Schmidt
Produced by:
Pensée Sauvage Films, CPH:LAB
Project commissioned by the CPH:DOX (DOX:LAB) in coproduction with the Swedish Film Institute.
With support from FONCA Mexico (Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y los Artes
Filmed in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca in Zapotec, Swedish, English and Spanish.
BANI KHOSHNOUDI 