La libertad
Viewer Advice: Contains depictions of violence towards animals
Made on a shoestring when the director was just 25, Lisandro Alonso’s groundbreaking first feature gatecrashed Cannes with a hypnotic depiction of rural labour.
In the remote La Pampa province of Argentina, Misael ekes out an ascetic existence. Living alone in an isolated corner of a rural property, he rarely sees other people, and barely says a word when he does. Working as a woodcutter, he chops trees, shaves them down and loads them for transport. In quieter moments, he smokes, takes a shit or lies in the sun. And at the end of the day, he kills, prepares and barbecues his dinner: a classic woodcutter’s meal of roasted armadillo.
Premiering in Competition at Cannes and scoring two special mentions at Rotterdam, La libertad showcased a new foundational work of slow cinema and the arrival of an unlikely auteur – who, as a young man, shot his debut feature film in nine days on his parents’ property with a tiny budget. Alonso’s observational approach blends documentary with cine-minimalism, blurring the lines between fact and fiction. Despite its relative absence of traditional plot, La libertad poses a big question: what is freedom? Is Misael, living completely off the grid, truly liberated? Or is he, as the film’s circular construction might suggest, trapped in an unending cycle of his own making?
“There are few films that encompass a world, a state of existence so purely and totally … This is [not minimalism but] maximalism, a cinema containing everything needed for its own value and purpose.” – Film Journey
Writer/director Lisandro Alonso is a guest of the festival and will be in attendance at the Monday 10 August session of the film.
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