Son Jorge Thielen Armand and  his father Jorge Thielen Hedderick (Roque) in El Father Plays HImself.

Reminiscent of Magritte painting a painter, who is painting a painting, here, Mo Scarpelli’s film ‘El Father Plays Himself’ is a documentary shot on the set of another movie called ‘La Fortaleza’ (2020), which, in turn, premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival.   As opposed to other movies about the ‘making of’, this film enters a very different territory.   Eleanor Coppola’s ‘Hearts of Darkness’ (1991) explored how Francis Coppola filmed ‘Apocalypse Now’ (1979).   More recently, Louis Pepe’s ‘Lost in La Mancha’ (2002) filmed the early jinxed attempts by Terry Gilliam to shoot ‘The Man who killed Don Quixote’, that was finally completed in 2018.

Mo Scarpelli, on the other hand, focusses on the personal aspects of the vagaries and problems of making a movie, in this case, involving the loving, if fraught, relationship between a father and son and their efforts to bridge their estrangement through the tortuous process of making a film together. 

 Mo Scarpelli

Mo Scarpelli is not only an award-winning documentary film maker, Frame by Frame (2015) & Anbessa (2019), she is also the life partner of the director Armand who she’s filming and the daughter-in-law of Roque, his father and protagonist.

This family shoot has tentacles further than the obvious. With her keen eye, Scarpelli has the ability to keep her camera on the son Jorge Thielen Armand’s emotional reactions while he is filming his father Jorge Thielen Hedderich, (known as Roque). In challenging scenes, with an instinct for understanding when to look and not flinch, she follows as he films a drama documentary of his father’s dramatic and adventurous life after Armand and his mother had gone to live in Canada and left him behind in Venezuela,(when Armand was only 15 years old)  . Armand has, affectionately, always calls him: ‘El Father’.

Jorge Thielen Hedderich ( Roque)

In ‘El Father plays Himself’ young director, Armand, has decided to return to Venezuela, emotionally bound by father/son fantasies, to make a film inspired by his father’s extraordinary life in the Venezuelan Amazon.  He casts his father, Roque, to play himself, but this initial act of love becomes a challenge, as his father struggles with his alcohol addiction, as the pain of years of separation comes to the surface.    

Jorge Thielen Hedderich (Roque) in La Fortaleza

During those early years ‘El Father, or Roque’, had become a chronic alcoholic and despite his ensuing erratic behaviour, ended up living a fascinating and adventurous life. He created a Tourist Camp and, in the 1990s, went to work in illegal gold mines in the depths of the jungle. Not unlike the beautiful mountain precipices which he had frequented, Roque has spent his whole life on a cliff edge.  Right from the start, the son’s filming process comes up against the complexity of the character of his protagonist father. There is the constant feeling that this abrasive man will tip over at any moment as he refuses to be cooperative, while his fondness for rum leads him to spend a lot of time yelling at the [very patient] crew. 

Mo Scarpelli explores these fragmented family ties and the pain that inevitably arises from the years of distance and isolation from those closest to you.  Like voyeurs, we find ourselves watching Rogue’s broken soul, as he rages, angry, damaged and still in pain.  Meanwhile, his son Armand, desperately hopes that through filming the painful dramas of his father's life, he might finally get to know him and, despite the many years of separation, find the path to reconciliation and love. Is it healthy to make this effort to bond, or is it futile?  Scarpelli reveals the pain and love on both sides.

La Fortaleza (2020)

Mo Scarpelli focusses on the interactions within this fraught relationship. Through long contemplative takes on Armand, we see him struggling with his demons, his hopes and anxieties, as he tries to film his father with as much honesty as he can muster. His friend admonishes Armand who tells him that once the film is finished, his father will feel like he’s been made into a clown and be shocked by what he sees. He will feel betrayed by the brutality of that very honesty, that reveals the cost of his addiction and the disintegration that inevitably followed.   Interspersed with old family videos of Roque as a young man playing with his five-year old son, the gaps and emotional links, of yesteryear with today, are revealed.

At times Roque lashes out in rage “I am not a whore, it’s my story, it’s my life!”, as he fights against feeling manipulated and exposed.

Auyaán Tepui Venezuela

Armand ( son) with his mild defensive manner, struggles to deal with his father’s tantrums and disruptive behaviour, as it threatens to derail the whole production. From the start, the producers, try to persuade Armand to use another actor, but his reply is “that is not the story I want to tell”. Roque is not an actor, and yet he is a superb non-actor, his charisma filling the screen with powerful energy on every take. They conspire to ration his alcohol intake, by watering down the rum, but Roque is not one to be fooled and does not miss a trick. With this relationship, both father and son are pulled in all directions and challenged at all levels.

Mo Scarpelli’s cinematography is superb, flexible and intimate at all times. As she herself describes:

“The intention of my films is to linger, to study faces and reactions, and ultimately, to allow people to betray their own or others’ versions of themselves. Every man is a contradiction; some of us are ready to see, and ask why.”

Scarpelli also aims to explore the connection of this story with the landscape in which it takes place. The landscape appears to reflect the burdens that the two protagonists are facing, from the sheer walls of precambrian sandstone that arise fiercely above the jungle mists, creating the majestic mountains of Auyán Tepui, to the dark and dense jungle trails and sandy river banks imbued with the delicate beauty of its flora and fauna.

To all this, you can add the endless waiting between scenes and the atmosphere created by long hot days, sweaty brows and hammocks, which, like a collage mingle with the sounds that echo around the tin roofed buildings in which they stay.  Scarpelli hit gold with her choice of Sound Designer Roberta Ainstein, who has created an audio world of her own within this production. 

Jorge Thielen Hedderich ( Roque) 

The film,  which premiered at the 51st Visions du Réel International Competition, Switzerland, has attracted many nominations and awards (Bogotá International Film Festival Colombia). This moving documentary El Father Plays Himself, as well as Jorge Thielen Armand’s film about his father ‘La Fortaleza’, have both had an enthusiastic reception at the film festivals.

THE FATHER PLAYS HIMSELF (2020)- will be released on 6 August, ICA.

 Credits

Director by Mo Scarpelli/ Produced by Manon Ardisson (God's Own Country, La Fortaleza) and Rodrigo Michelangeli (La Fortaleza). Cinematographer: Mo Scarpelli. Editor: Juan David Soto/ Sound Designer Roberto Ainstein.