compe-03_A MALE – なら国際映画祭フェスティバル2022

International Competition

[A MALE] UN VARÓN

Carlos lives in a youth shelter in the center of Bogotá. It’s Christmas and he longs to spend the day with his family. As he leaves the shelter for the holidays, Carlos is confronted with the brutality of his neighborhood, ruled by the law of the strongest, the alpha male. He must prove he can be one of them, while deep inside, these expressions of masculinity clash with the decisions he must make in order to survive.

Asia Premiere

Director：Fabian Hernández
Colombia, France, Netherlands, Germany
2021
82min.
color
-
Spanish
JPN & ENG Sub.

SNS

Screening Dates, Times, and Venues

Sep.20 (Tue.) 18:00-
Bus Terminal

Purchase Tickets

Sep.23 (Fri.) 10:00-
Naramachi Center

Purchase Tickets

* Only if there are vacant seats, tickets are available at the door.

Guest Talk

Sep.20 (Tue.) 18:00-
After screening

movie trailer

Director

The film is inspired by events from my adolescence, my personal experiences. I grew up in a patriarchal society with its machismo and in the company of ‘real men’. Vulnerability and fear were considered as feminine, as a lack of virility and a flaw. Therefore, I rejected to express my feelings and sensations and to explore my sexual desires. I also started to hate the poetry and art I was originally drawn to. I despised sensitivity in general. UN VARÓN tells about this conflict: the vulnerable side in men challenged by a pressure to adopt a concept of stereotypical masculinity which hides the individual’s true nature. I intended to show that there are ways out of this, even in a rough environment like the streets of Bogotá: It is possible to change, to break free from an identity imposed on you and yet, to survive. In fact, it is the rebellion against machismo that lets the main character grow strong.

Fabian Hernández

Fabian Hernández was born in Bogotá. In 2015 he founded his company Níquel Films with which he has written, directed and produced his first short films. In addition to his career as a director he has worked in the area of education as a teacher of screenwriting and cinema in public schools in Bogotá, and he has also worked as an assistant director in film productions in Colombia. He is currently developing his new feature film The Birds.

Recommendations from the NIFF Supporters

The film shows us a realistic portrayal that makes us think, “Is this a documentary? In particular, the performance of Carlos, the master of the house, is outstanding. The acting of the main character, Carlos, is especially good, his lines are natural, and his facial expressions and His facial expressions and the people around him are wonderful. When you see a good film, you experience its world. That is what this film does. Never. The world in which this story takes place is not a good world. But what does this film give to those who see it? There are so many stories out there.

Jurors

Jury President│Filmmaker

Billante Mendoza

Filipino film director and producer. Known as a Living National Treasure. His films
have been highly acclaimed and won awards at the world’s three major film festivals―the Cannes Film Festival,
the Venice International Film Festival, and the Berlin International Film Festival. After working in the advertising
industry, he became a production designer. He has served as juror and jury president at film festivals held in
Japan, Egypt, France, Malaysia, Singapore, and Belgium.

Filmmaker

Momoko Ando

Born in Tokyo in 1982. She studied abroad in England since high school and
graduated from the University of London’s Faculty of Arts. After that, she studied filmmaking in New York, worked
as an assistant director, and made her debut as a director and screenwriter in 2010 with “A Piece of Our Life”. In
2011, she published her first full-length novel “0.5mm”, and in 2014 directed, wrote and made it into a movie. After
that, the movie “Utamonogatari CINEMA FIGHTERS project ‘Aeiou'”, which she directed and wrote, was released
in 2018.

Professor at Kyoto Seika University Faculty of Humanities

Dr. Oussouby SACKO

As a government-sponsored student, he studied at Beijing Language and Culture
University and Nanjing Southeast University. In 1990, he experienced a shortterm
homestay in Tokyo and was surprised by the downtown culture that was common to Mali. He came to
Japan in 1991, and in 1999 completed a doctoral course at the Department of Architecture, Graduate School
of Engineering, Kyoto University. Ph.D. (Engineering). Specialized in spatial anthropology. After working as a
faculty member and dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Kyoto Seika University, he was appointed president of
the university in April 2018 (until March 2022) before taking up his current position. He advocates a society that
recognizes diverse values from the perspective of everyday life.

Asian Film Programming Advisor

Asia│Film Programming Advisor

Jacob Wong

Jacob Wong has been a member of the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society for over two decades, with double-barrel responsibilities as Curator and Director of HAF (Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum). He is currently Director of the Film Industry Office, overlooking HAF, HAF Goes to Cannes, the Film Lab, Co-productions and Foreign Sales. He is also the Berlin Film Festival’s delegate for Chinese-language cinemas.

Locarno IFF Selection Committee, Film Critique

Daniela Persico

Daniela Persico is part selection committee for Locarno Film Festival and Berlin Critics Week and
a curator for L’immagine e la parola, spin-off of the Locarno Festival. She’s founder and editor in chief of the online quarterly
Filmidee (www.filmidee.it). She has also devoted to help various young filmmakers in developing films. In 2022, she was
appointed artistic director of the Bellaria Film Festival.

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