Al Otro Lado | |
---|---|
Directed by | Gustavo Loza |
Written by | Gustavo Loza |
Produced by | Elisa Salinas |
Starring | Adrian Alonso Carmen Maura Jorge Milo Vanessa Bauche |
Cinematography | Gerónimo Denti Patrick Murguia Serguei Saldívar Tanaka |
Edited by | Roberto Bolado Juan Fernández |
Music by | Hector Ruiz Quintanar |
Distributed by | Imcine |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
Language | Spanish |
Al Otro Lado ("To The Other Side") is a 2004 Mexican drama film directed by Gustavo Loza. [1] The film follows the story of three children, one from Mexico, Cuba, and Morocco, as they attempt to deal with realities of immigration in their societies. The film won three awards at the Lleida Latin-American Film Festival in 2006, including Best Film and the Audience Award; Vanessa Bauche won best actress at the festival for her performance. [2] Al Otro Lado was also the Mexican candidate for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards, but was not selected as one of the final five nominees. [3]
Priciliano, the first boy introduced in the story, has a very strong bond with his father. At the beginning of the film, his father tells him a story about a princess who was kidnapped by a conquistador and commits suicide in the lake he and his friend have been playing in. He is trying to teach his son the importance of respecting the dead, a very prevalent theme in Mexican culture. However, Priciliano is struck with grief when his father leaves his family to go find work "al otro lado" (on the other side). He is particularly upset because he is about to celebrate his ninth birthday, which his father will be missing. Frustrated, he attempts to cross the river to the other side with his friend and nearly drowns but is rescued by the ghost of the princess his father told him about. An older man in the community tells Priciliano that it is important to stay with his family because they need him, and the boy accepts his role as "the man of the house" in his father's place and begins to learn how to live everyday life without him.
The second boy introduced in the story, Ángel, is ashamed of his mother, who may be a prostitute. He was told before the story began that his father is a famous person and lives "al otro lado." Desperate for a sense of pride, he and his friend, Walter, attempt to cross the ocean in a primitive raft to find his father. In their attempt, however, their raft is hit and overturned by a large wave. Walter drowns in the ensuing chaos, while Ángel miraculously escapes. He doesn't have the courage to tell his friend's mother of what happened and feels extremely guilty. He has dreams of Walter by the ocean. In the dreams, Walter yells at him that he must tell his mother the truth. His grandfather notices something is wrong and urges his mother to talk to him. He tells his mother a little of what happened in the ocean and why they were there, and his mother figures out the rest and tells him that his father knows nothing of Ángel's existence. But tells him that he is all that she and his grandfather have and vice versa. Ángel learns to be content in his situation and the cinematography suggests that his friend's death is no longer a burden to him, but a memory to carry with him.
Fátima is a girl who runs away from home to find her father, bringing only a picture of him with her. She is intercepted, though, by human traffickers, who take her to Spain on their boat. Once the traders arrive, a woman who works with them refuses to send Fátima with the other girls because Fátima is too young and she had only asked for seven girls. This woman, who does not speak Arabic, takes Fátima in and eventually softens enough to drive Fátima to Málaga and help her find her father. The father is with a Spanish woman, but once confronted with his daughter, he leaves the other woman to return Fátima home. The movie ends with a shot of the two of them in front of their home village.
Al otro lado has an approval rating of 78% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 9 reviews, and an average rating of 6.1/10. [4]
My Best Friend's Wedding is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by P. J. Hogan from a screenplay by Ronald Bass who also produced. The film stars Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz, and Rupert Everett.
Malèna is a 2000 erotic drama film written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore from a story by Luciano Vincenzoni. It stars Monica Bellucci and Giuseppe Sulfaro. The film won the Grand Prix at the 2001 Cabourg Film Festival. At the 73rd Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Original Score.
Afterglow is a 1997 American comedy-drama film directed and written by Alan Rudolph and starring Nick Nolte, Julie Christie, Lara Flynn Boyle and Jonny Lee Miller. It was produced by Robert Altman and filmed in Montreal.
The Piano Teacher is a 2001 erotic psychological drama film written and directed by Michael Haneke, based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Elfriede Jelinek. It tells the story of an unmarried piano teacher at a Vienna conservatory, living with her mother in a state of emotional and sexual disequilibrium, who enters into a sadomasochistic relationship with her student. A co-production between France and Austria, Haneke was given the opportunity to direct after previous attempts to adapt the novel by filmmakers Valie Export and Paulus Manker collapsed for financial reasons.
Central Station is a 1998 road drama film directed by Walter Salles and starring Fernanda Montenegro, Marília Pêra and Vinícius de Oliveira. The screenplay, adapted by João Emanuel Carneiro and Marcos Bernstein from a story by its director Walter Salles, tells the story of a young boy's friendship with a jaded middle-aged woman.
"Al otro lado del río" is a song by Uruguayan singer Jorge Drexler from the soundtrack album for the film The Motorcycle Diaries (2004). It was released as a single on 15 March 2005, by Dro East West. Besides the film's soundtrack, the song was included in reissue editions of Drexler's seventh studio album Eco (2004) as a bonus track. In June 2020, he performed the song at the launch show of the app 342 Amazônia at Circo Voador.
The Flower of My Secret is a 1995 drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. It was selected as the Spanish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 68th Academy Awards, but it was not selected as one of the final five nominees.
Vanessa Bauche is a Mexican television, theatre and film actress. She is best known for playing as Nora in the Apple TV+ series “Acapulco”. She also appeared in many Mexican television series and movies.
Sexo, amor y otras perversiones is a 2006 Mexican film made up of eight short films directed by several Mexican film directors:
The Lleida Latin-American Film Festival is a cinema festival that takes place in Lleida, Catalonia, Spain awarding Latin American films. It is organised by the Latin American Centre of Lleida and is sponsored by the city council, the University of Lleida and La Caixa. It's one of the main yearly cultural events in the town and takes place at the Teatre Principal, CaixaFòrum Lleida, Funatic, Cafè del Teatre de l'Escorxador, Institut d'Estudis Ilerdencs, the main campus of the University of Lleida, and the Hotel Condes de Urgel, alongside other cultural activities. The event has taken place since 1993, and awards were first given in 1997. At one time the festival took place in January but it now takes place in late March.
Son of the Bride is a 2001 Argentine comedy drama film directed by Juan José Campanella and written by Campanella and Fernando Castets. The executive producers were Juan Vera and Juan Pablo Galli, and it was produced by Adrián Suar. It stars Ricardo Darín, Héctor Alterio, Norma Aleandro, Eduardo Blanco and Natalia Verbeke.
Sons and Lovers is a 1960 British period drama film directed by Jack Cardiff and adapted by Gavin Lambert and T. E. B. Clarke from the semi-autobiographical 1913 novel of the same name by D. H. Lawrence. It stars Trevor Howard, Dean Stockwell, Wendy Hiller, Mary Ure, and Heather Sears.
Jaime de Armiñán Oliver was a Spanish screenwriter and film director. His films have been nominated for Academy Awards in the Foreign language film category twice, in 1972 for Mi querida señorita and in 1980 for El Nido.
Shades of Ray is a 2008 independent film written and directed by Jaffar Mahmood. The film stars Zachary Levi as a half-white, half-Pakistani male wrestling with his mixed identity while waiting for his girlfriend to respond to his marriage proposal. The film was screened at numerous film festivals.
Early Spring Story is a 1985 Japanese film directed by Shinichirō Sawai.
Friends from the Other Side / Amigos del Otro Lado (1993) is a bilingual (Spanish/English) Latino children's book written by Mexican American/Chicana scholar Gloria E. Anzaldúa and illustrated by Consuelo Méndez Castillo. It is loosely based on Anzaldúa's early life in South Texas and tells the story of a young Chicana girl, Prietita, living near the US-Mexican border who befriends and helps a young Mexican boy, Joaquín, who has recently immigrated.
Natalia Almada is a Mexican-American photographer and filmmaker. Her work as a filmmaker focuses on Mexican history, politics, and culture in insightful and poetic films that push the boundaries of how the documentary form addresses social issues. Her films include "Everything Else " (2016), El Velador (2011), El General (2009), All Water Has a Perfect Memory (2001), and Al Otro Lado (2005), and her work has appeared at numerous national and international venues, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Sundance Film Festival, the Guggenheim Museum, the Munich International Film Festival, and the Cannes Directors' Fortnight. She won the 2009 Sundance Directing Award Documentary for her film El General. She is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow and the first Latina filmmaker to win the award.
Wadjda is a 2012 Saudi Arabian drama film, written and directed by Haifaa al-Mansour. It was the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and the first feature-length film made by a female Saudi director. It won numerous awards at film festivals around the world. The film was selected as the Saudi Arabian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. It successfully earned a nomination for Best Foreign Film at the 2014 BAFTA Awards.
In Bloom is a 2013 Georgian drama film directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß. It is a bildungsroman focused on the friendship between two teenage girls in 1992 after the country’s independence from the Soviet Union. The artistic style is influenced by post-communist Romanian cinema, particularly by cameraman Oleg Mutu, who also worked on 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007).
Azali is a 2018 Ghanaian drama film directed by Kwabena Gyansah. It was selected as the Ghanaian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. It was the first time that Ghana had submitted a film for the Best International Feature Film Oscar.