Cocote

Sunday 11th November 5:00 PM

Synopsis

Some films we show pick themselves because the director is well known, or the film has won prizes, others jump out at us because they look new and different; this is definitely in the second camp. To start with, it comes from the Dominican Republic, unusual in itself. Secondly, the director, Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias, in his first fiction feature film, appears to be trying to adapt the 'rules' of film-making to develop his own style: "'Cocote', is a dazzling collage of styles and approaches in which every scene - practically every shot - feels different from the one that came before. Evoking the restless unpredictability of a late-period Jean-Luc Godard film, de Los Santos Arias's images shift form almost constantly - from film to video, from black and white to colour, from widescreen to full frame - as the writer-director experiments with a vast array of aesthetic stylings, everything from slow-cinema stillness to ethnographic vérité to lustrous film noir. The result is an invigorating, if slightly exhausting, parade of near-perpetual innovation, in which the only constant is the filmmaker’s stylistic dynamism" - Keith Watson, Slant Magazine. We can only support any endeavour to evolve the art of film-making.

Alberto is returning to the Republic to attend his murdered father's funeral. A fervent evangelical Christian, he is already worried by the local Christian customs which coalesce in the ecstatic hybrid rituals of the 'rezos de los nueve'. His fears are increased as he begins to realize that his family expect him to take revenge on the local criminal boss who was responsible for the murder. The film builds to a crescendo as Alberto tries to decide what to do...

So we can expect a thriller, some wonderful shots of the Dominican scenery and way of life, mixed with some innovative filming; this is going to be a film we remember..!

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