Three Short Films: Madre, Piggy and Fifteen

Corina J Poore reviews three Latino offerings from the 'Shorts' programme at this year's The BFI London Film Festival: ‘MADRE (2017)’ by Spanish writer/director Rodrigo Sorogoyen, ‘PIGGY (Cerdita) 2018’, (14 min), by Spanish director Carlota Pereda and ‘FIFTEEN’ (Quince) UK/Peru 2018, written and directed by Peiman Zekevat.

by Corina J Poore

The 2018 London Film Festival programmers proved to have a good eye for short films, offering a cluster of fascinating shorts from all over the world, including ACCIDENCE by Guy Madden, Evan & Galen Johnson, CAMEL BOY from the UAE, and a large number from Latino, Portuguese and Brazilian directors.

There was a record breaking number of female film makers, up to 85, of whom a substantial number of Latinas, among them, the effervescent Arantxa Echevarria from Spain (CARMEN & LOLA), Lila Avila from Colombia (LA CAMARISTA), the innovative Lola Arias from Argentina (THEATRE OF WAR), Natalia Cabral Oriol Estrada from the Dominican Republic (MIRIAM LIES) and Ana Katz from Argentina, (FLORIONÁPOLIS DREAM).

Short films, on the other hand, are too often not given enough importance. This is probably a mistake as this is where many film makers hone their craft. Commercials help, but shorts include the all-important narrative element. Often, like with short stories in the literary world, short films are the precursors to an eventual feature, as in the case of the first short reviewed here: MADRE.

Madre and madre photo.jpg

‘MADRE (2017)’ by Spanish writer/director Rodrigo Sorogoyen is a 19-minute thriller. There is a certain skill to achieving this level of tension in such a tight time-frame. The phone rings and every mother’s nightmare explodes onto the screen as a lost child calls his mother on the phone, all the while, it is becoming agonizingly clear that little Iván’s phone battery is gradually running out.

The mother Marta, (played by Marta Nieto), is about to spend some time with her own mother (Blanca Apilánez Fernández) at home in Spain, when her son Iván (Álvaro Balas) who is on holiday with his father in France, phones on his father’s mobile phone revealing a desperate situation that has everyone trying to think of a way to help the mother on the screen. The tension is held and Marta and her child Iván on the telephone are both shatteringly convincing. He is a 6-year old boy and the despair of the mother, so many miles away is tangible and real. Taught and simple, with no sentimentality, this is a film that is neatly constructed and keeps the audience on their toes throughout.

Rodrigo Sorogoyen, (also known as Ruy Sorogoyen) has regularly worked for many TV series including ‘Frágiles’ (Fragiles) 2013, and also the feature ‘Stockholm’ (2013, which he co-directed. More recently he shot ‘The Realm (2018)’ and the short ‘Mother (2017). These two productions were both screened at this year’s BFI London Film Festival, and MADRE is now eligible for the 2019 Oscars. MADRE also won the Prize for Best Short at the José María Forqué Awards, Audience Award and Community of Madrid Award at the Alcalá de Henares Short film festival, a notable Goya Award and more, so much so that the director is now planning to develop it into a full-length feature film.

MADRE (2017) The film will be at the Austin Film Festival and at the Naples International Film Festival.

Writer/ Director: Rodrigo Sorogoen / Producers: Maria del Puy Alvarado/ Marta García Larriú/ Clara Nieto and Rodrigo Sorogoyen

DOP: Alejandro del Pablo / Editor: Alberto del Campo

CAST: Maria Nieto (Sorogoyen’s wife in real life), Blanca Apilánez Fernández / Álvaro Balas

In ‘PIGGY (Cerdita) 2018’, (14 min), the Spanish director Carlota Pereda’s tale reveals the agony of being a teenager when you don’t look like everyone else. One of the songs that roars in the earphones of the overweight teenage protagonist (Laura Galán) is none other then “Night of the Living Dead” by Agoraphobia. This girl struggles to find a place for herself, and when she cannot, bullied and harassed by her peers, she dives blindly into her world of music and ignores the reality around her. A world that, in turn, is even more shocking. The brutality of being cruelly taunted by others, is echoed in the brutality of what is really going on around her, that she is unable to see, so immersed is she in her own world of personal horror, with an avenging angel that takies her to a very dark place. It is a short film with a chilling edge that leaves us feeling uncomfortable. Laura Galán’s agonized performance is totally convincing as she lives a life within a life, as if she were herself in the night of the living dead.

Piggy ( 2018)

Writer/Director: Carlota Pereda / Producers: Daniel Higueras. Jordi Jiménez/Luis Ángel Ramírez/ Mario Madueño

DOP: Rita Noriega / Editor: David Pelegrín

CAST: Laura Galán, Sara Barroso. Alejandro Chaparro. Elisabet Casanovas

The third film to be included in this selection is ‘FIFTEEN’ (Quince) UK/Peru 2018, which was written and directed by Peiman Zekevat, the London-based filmmaker and cinematographer. In the brief 10 minutes of the film, which is shot with an uncomfortable intimacy, we experience the disintegration of fifteen-year old Maria’s life, (superbly played by Kelly Analy) who has unknowingly been filmed in a sexual encounter.

As the video goes viral, she crumples before all the bullying and harassment, which begins as mere sniggering, while she is innocently playing a game of volleyball at school. The story is based in a secondary school in Peru, where cyberbullying is fairly new, but it could be situated anywhere. It is a form of cruelty that has become universally remorseless as fellow students taunt each other with no fear of retribution or shame and even less thought for the consequences of their actions. Only one friend is supportive as the poor girl’s life falls apart and she can find no refuge. What will she do?

This is a moving short, that conveys a great deal in its limited time, the careful sound track and sensitive camera work stay close to the young girl and we can all feel her pain. Peiman Zekevat is known for documentaries and fictional films on social and humanitarian issues, like ‘TIMBÓ’ (2017), about the effects of dam building on indigenous lands in the Amazon. He is currently working on a new fiction short based on issues of child abuse in the UK.