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2011, 04-05:
Review of film: “DEPORTING PROMETEO” + Q&A with Director FERNANDO MIELES = Report # 05 re LATINO FILM FESTIVAL
“DEPORTING PROMETEO” / “PROMETEO DEPORTADO”
This is a Report on one of the two film entries from ECUADOR in this year’s 27th Festival in Chicago...
... Before the film started, staff member Johnny (assisted by volunteer Carlos, as shown in the photo below) advised the audience that the hope was to have the film’s DIRECTOR talk to us after the film. But, director Mieles had just arrived at O’Hare Airport, & thus they couldn’t guaranty that he’d be able to appear at the theater in time...
... The Festival’s schedule describes the movie as a “cinematic Lord of the Flies sequel tale of humanty left to its own devices... In a place where one is usually going somewhere, this film shows how people become disoriented when forced to stay...”
... A group of people from Ecuador attempt to check into a passport control area of some airport in EUROPE, apparently trying to either leave or get home... But, for some unexplained reason, all of them are DETAINED and move angrily down a hall when forced to go to a large waiting room...
... The authorities seem to be searching for some specific person, and at one point comment on how one bearded man there for some reason appears to not even “EXIST” in the country’s computer records. That causes them to eventually treat him badly & then BEAT him...
... In time, he somehow manages to ESCAPE from them, & all thru the film, we see him meandering up & back thru the various “check-in” areas of the airport, looking at maps of the terminals as he’s transported as if by moving sidewalks...
... But, outside of him, all the other people with Ecuador passports are congregated together in the closed-off waiting room... Little by little, we are “INTRODUCED” to the main characters, including an eccentric magician named Prometeo (seemingly played by CARLORS GALLEGOS)...
... There’s a friendly stocky lady hairdresser named Monica, who tries to help a pretty blonde-haired woman who claims to be a “MODEL” (who Prometeo is very “taken” with & tries to get closer to)... Monica eventually helps the “model” remove very dry contact lenses that are hurting the model’s eyes...
... We meet a married couple who insist that they are “TOURISTS” rather than “immigrants” (as the husband disdainfully describes the others in the room)... There’s a learned WRITER who has many books with him...
... One of the more “unusual” characters is a SWIMMER in his “warm-up” multi-colored outfit, who insists on doing “WORK-OUTS” to keep “in shape” during his entire stay there, practicing his “strokes”, his “kicking”, etc...
... There’s a group of three elderly ladies, seemingly sisters, one of whom starts to become a victim of some dementia, insisting she doesn’t “KNOW” the other 2 women she’s always with... (The cast includes XIMENA MIELES, PEKI ANDINO, ANDRÉS CRESPO, JUANA GUARDERAS, ALEJANDRO FEJARDO, and numerous others)...
... At one point, the authorities bring some food to the group... But, there are never any “explanations” or “ANSWERS” given to the travelers as to WHY they are being held there & when they will be allowed to leave...
... As time goes on, the CONDITIONS in the airport become more and more DIFFICULT for the group, since they have to share a limited washroom area & need to SLEEP together in the waiting room...
... Prometeo periodically tries to ENTERTAIN the group, with “magic” tricks from his large trunk, puppetry, card-reading, etc... But, he’s not really very “good” at certain things, & quickly becomes unable to “escape” some HANDCUFFS he unwisely has put on himself...
... We meet a guy who tries to make money off the group (by filming video recordings of them on his cell phone, accumulating & selling toilet supplies, etc.)... The authorities keep adding NEW groups of Ecuadorans to the waiting room, and that makes things increasingly difficult for all of them there...
... As tends to happen in life, people start becoming very “restive” & increasingly UNCOOPERATIVE with each other as time goes on. When they start to fight over the limited FOOD they have, hairdresser Monica is the one who sets to “ORGANIZING” things for everyone, working to have all the people bring their remaining food which she then arranges to dole out fairly to all who are there...
... By working together and being accommodating, ALL the people start to be in BETTER shape than if they had continued their prior disagreements... They even reach the point that people work to HELP each other: the writer composes and types letters for the confined people, Monica cuts hair, a doctor helps those who become ill (like the elderly lady with dementia), etc....
... A group of “new” confinees who were in a band eventually start to play MUSIC for the increasingly-large group, and people start to happily DANCE and enjoy being each other more...
... But, when more & more people keep being forced into the waiting room, there is less and less FOOD and supplies, and the increasing tension causes people to start to “RIOT” again...
... Certain people start to “STRONG-ARM” the others and make demands on the weaker people for money or goods in order to provide them with some limited FOOD and the like... In other words, society starts to become “CRAZY” from all the confinement...
... The film keeps “growing & growing” on you, showing the “PHASES” people go thru when they are restricted in a small area with diminishing “supplies” & increasing tempers... You get to “MEET” a bunch of fascinating characters, & it’s captivating seeing them go thru numerous “STAGES” in their relationships and tribulations...
... For the beguiling way the film and characters keep “ENVELOPING” you, and the incredible “personalities” and “secrets” we’re introduced to along the “journey”, I’m rating this unusual and often amazing film at 8.5 out of 10 stars...
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Q&A with Director FERNANDO MIELES
When the film ended, we were pleased that staff member Johnny advised that Director FERNANDO MIELES had arrived for the Q&A...
... Since (typically) people were hesitant to be “first” to ask a question, I started off the session: I commented on what amazing work he’d done in “choreographing” the movements of the huge CAST thru numerous complicated scenes, & wondered just how LARGE the cast was...
... Fernando said, there were 13 “main” characters [seen thru the film], + 20 “support” players, 25 “other” characters, plus around 250 “extras”... To my additional question, he said, it had taken 7 weeks of shooting to film what was done...
... Fernando (alternating between Spanish and English, with the help of a very good lady translator), said that, the hardest part of his filming work was in keeping the actors “TOGETHER”, to do what needed to be accomplished in the individual scenes... So, in some ways, “EVERYTHING was the ‘hardest’ thing!...”
... To other questions (from me and others), he said he’d worked on this project for literally 10 years to get it made... Yes, it was very complicated to handle so much in just 1 room, which was done on a sound stage...
... When he was putting together the film, some people tried to tell him it COULDN’T be done as he wanted because they felt that “there’s not that MANY actors in Ecuador!”... But, his background is in THEATER, so he knew a great MANY actors, & thus “It was kind of like being at a PARTY”, to work doing the film “with your FRIENDS”...
... The guy playing Prometeo was recommended by someone, who’d seen him in FRANCE where he’d worked as a MIME previously! This movie was the first acting work that guy had done where he actually did any SPEAKING in his role!...
... In making the movie, Fernando had talked to some people in New York who made some recommendations... One thing a lot of the audience may not realize is, he purposely worked to gather together people from different REGIONS of Ecuador. Thus, various people he utilized represent certain specific CITIES and accents (dialects)...
... When someone in the audience asked what he feels is the most important “MESSAGE” he makes with the film, somewhat uncomfortably, Fernando replied that, “I don’t really LIKE to tell—”, he prefers that each person makes his OWN determination about that... Overall, his position is, “I just ‘MADE’ it!...”
... To a person’s asking just what Ecuadoran “accents” we’re hearing in the movie, Fernando said, it was filmed in GUAYAQUIL. While most of the country’s cinema work is done in the capital of Quito, he preferred to build a STUDIO in Guayaquil to do most of the filming. So, you’re hearing a lot of accents from there, + ones from Quito & elsewhere...
... When asked how the film was financed, Fernando said, actually, there was a bunch of money gotten from “PRODUCT placements”: for example, the bags people carry in the airport are from movie chains and supermarkets and the like in Ecuador, tho most of us naturally wouldn’t be very familiar with the names...
... Continuing his answer, Fernando volunteered the information that the movie was FINANCED in part by PRIZES he’d won over the years in Cuba and France & elsewhere, for documentaries and the like which he’d made...
... Also, the city of GUAYAQUIL provided some financing. For that matter, he got some prize money for making a documentary film “parallel” (at the same time) to his filming the “DEPORTING PROMETEO” movie we’d just seen!... (So, one film in-effect “supported” the other)...
... [Below is a photo from 4-7-11 of Fernando holding a DVD copy of his 80-minute documentary called "DESCARTES":]
... When asked, he said, the “post-production” work was ALL done right in the CAMERA: he’d spent a huge amount of time in PLANNING-OUT things like camera movements before filming. Only the short “staircase” scenes (of the bearded guy roaming around the airport) was done as a special “editing” outside the initial camera filming...
... Fernando commented that certain camera work involved planning for over 12 hours in 1 day. At times, he was “very improvisational” in what he eventually decided to do, such as once waking up at 4 am with an idea for planning 1 certain scene...
... He quite appreciated a woman’s saying, “THANK you for the WONDERFUL film you gave us!...”
... Fernando said, while most of us would not be familiar with them, certain of the actors (such as the 3 older women) were very well-known actresses back in Ecuador...
... Another comment he made was, when he writes his things, “I can’t allow myself to think as a DIRECTOR...” He wrote the script over a 6 YEAR period, & there were at least 18 different versions done of what we eventually saw in the movie... The staff member thanked him again for his appearance...
... I spoke to Fernando a bit AFTER the Q&A (getting his e-mail addresses, etc.). This was his 1st ever visit to the UNITED STATES, & he was very PLEASED to be able to show the film and appear here (where it was to be shown again on Thursday, April 7th at 6:30 pm at the Landmark CENTURY Centre theater)...
... He hopes to visit various sights in Chicago, + has plans to visit some OTHER cities such as a Festival in New York... (He was also pleased to speak to a man who told him after tonite’s screening that, he was so IMPRESSED with the film, he’d like him to show it at a Latino film Festival coming up in CANADA...)
... So, once again, the Chicago Festival presented another excellent film and fascinating Q&A talk about film-making...
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