(Colombia, 91 min.)
Written and directed by Carlos Gaviria
Starring: Paola Baldion, Julián Román
Portraits in a Sea of Lies easily has the most poetic title of all the films screening at this year’s University of Ottawa Human Rights Film Festival. Like most books of poetry, though, Portraits is a bit tricky. This well-intentioned film by Carlos Gaviria easily delivers more on the message than it does the medium, but the multi-award-winning Portrait in a Sea of Lies smartly lets the lessons of the film leave a lasting impression. The film takes audiences to a contemporary Colombia where, as the final titles cards of the film reveal, an estimated ten percent of the population is displaced by violence. What begins as a run-of-the-mill road movie ends as a compelling essay on forced migration.
The film sees Marina (Paola Baldion) become a placeless nomad when the rickety hut she shares with her grandfather collapses in a mudslide. The fatal accident leaves the mute Marina (burdened by prior trauma) in the care of her cousin Jairo (Julián Román), a photographer and regular Casanova. They decide to travel the winding Colombian rounds to reclaim the property Marina inherited from her grandfather.
Gaviria finds some compelling observational moments with his
minimalist aesthetic, but Portrait in a
Sea of Lies suffers from Baldion’s comparatively bland performance. Marina
doesn’t make for an especially interesting character since the actress
struggles to invest their viewer in her fragile psychological state. The
Colombian countryside is far more interesting, especially since Gaviria and the
camera take it in with a near-sociological view that integrates the beauty,
poverty, and misery of villages as some of the film’s central characters.
Awkwardly cut flashbacks and theatrical visions of dead relatives who resemble
extras from Michael Jackson’s Thriller
don’t help much, either.
A powerful final act handily redeems the film, though, as Portrait in a Sea of Lies provides a
brutal, gripping explanation of Marina’s displacement. The finale lets the
trauma that Marian carries through the film ring clear and the film extends to
future victims of violence as Marina finds herself alone and on the edge of a
changed world. The unsettling and open ending of Marina and Jairo’s journey
invites ample debate.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Portrait in a Sea of Lies screens at the University of Ottawa Human
Rights Film Festival on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 7:00 pm at the Alumni Auditorium in
the Jock Turcot University Centre, 85 University St. at uOttawa.
Admission for all
film screenings is $10 for the general public and $5 for Full time students and
CFI members. Festival passes are also available for $40 (general) and $20
(students/CFI members).
Please visit www.cdp-hrc.uottawa.ca or www.cfi-icf.ca for more information.