Elena Lazic critiques Glorimar Marrero Sánchez’s new movie, La pecera, for Cineuropa. [Also see previous post La pecera / The Fishbowl.]
The rapport between cinema and demise (issues which might be on the display now not exist the second they seem to us) can simply be obscured, however works like La pecera by Glorimar Marrero Sanchez deliver it again to us proper earlier than our eyes, and it’s terrifying: the movie’s pictures appear to quiver with an unsettling sense of urgency. The movie, which premiered on the 2023 Sundance Movie Competition, feels brutally actual and uncooked even earlier than the supply of that rigidity is clearly revealed.
Isel Rodríguez performs Noelia, an apparently very reckless thirty-year-old—and that is an understatement. The movie opens with a second of peace: we first see her floating within the sea, then we notice that she is in a tub. Quickly, blood seems within the water, and she or he rushes to open the door for her frightened boyfriend Jorge (Maximiliano Rivas) who’s knocking. Noelia lives in her personal little world and doesn’t need to let him in—a temperament that solely partly explains her work as an artist and her sturdy persona. Once we see her taking capsules and Jorge cleansing the opening made on her abdomen to attach her colostomy luggage, we are able to guess that she has well being issues. Besides she’s decided to reside her life to the fullest, together with dancing and ingesting at a pal’s celebration, regardless of Jorge’s objections.
Nevertheless, greater than optimism, we sense that there’s despair and anger in her dedication, and when her oncologist tells her that her most cancers has metastasized, Noelia is much less shocked than Jorge. All of the sudden, we see a purpose for her angle and, alternatively, the focus with which she attracts or performs together with her useless hair which hangs drying on the partitions of her rest room. Rodríguez captures with disturbing depth not solely Noelia’s worry, but in addition the way in which she tries to take care of her worry, and certainly the movie is commonly troublesome to look at.
However, Noelia finds a sort of function in life, which additionally helps to distract the viewers from the horror: each infrequently, takes the ferry again to Vieques, the Puerto Rican island the place she grew up. There, she finds respite within the firm of a childhood pal (Modesto Lacén) who understands that it’s higher to not ask too many questions. The island is sort of idyllic, however a grimmer actuality quickly tarnishes the postcard surroundings: for years Vieques was the testing floor for U.S. bombs and Noelia and her mom (Magali Carrasquillo) spend their time cleansing up the island and combating for the rights of the individuals.
The concept Noelia’s sickness has an simply identifiable trigger is an virtually unbearably bitter and heartbreaking revelation. Subsequently, her anger comes not solely from her private case, however from that of a complete individuals who proceed to undergo the implications of years of occupation. This movie by Marrero Sanchez finds an emotionally gripping approach to make us really feel this staggering injustice in depth, to channel it via the story of this lady who fights to proceed dwelling, not less than in her final moments, as she needs. Nevertheless, past the injustice of the state of affairs, it stays inconceivable to essentially perceive how she should really feel. Past being an emblem and an instance of U.S. violence towards the island, Noelia can also be a dying individual, and watching her undergo as she nears demise is extraordinarily disturbing, which ultimately, isn’t that productive.
La Pecera was produced by Solita Movies (Spain) and La Canica Movies (Puerto Rico). Worldwide gross sales of the movie are dealt with by Go to Movies.
Translated by Ivette Romero. For unique evaluate (in French), see https://cineuropa.org/fr/newsdetail/437244/
Additionally see https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film325498.html