En construcción (2001)

Director:

José Luis Guerín

Writer:

José Luis Guerín (writer)

Release Date:

19 October 2001 (Spain)

Genre:

Documentary

Awards:

10 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Juana Rodríguez Molina	...	La pareja
Iván Guzmán Jiménez	...	La pareja
Juan López López	...	El encargado
Juan Manuel López	...	Su Hijo
Pedro Robles	...	Ferrallista
Santiago Segade	...	Albañil
Abdel Aziz El Mountassir	...	Peón
Abdelsalam Madris	...	Peón
Antonio Atar	...	El ex-marino
Pere Lluís Artigas	...	Arqueólogo
Jesús M. Eiris	...	Encofrador
Francisco Gómez	...	Encofrador
Juan M. Ortiz	...	Encofrador
Jordi Martínez	...	Encofrador
Tania Garduño	...	Niña

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish | Catalan

Color:

Color

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Spain:T

Filming Locations:

El Raval, Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Company:

Ovídeo TV S.A.

Movie Connections:

References Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

elegantly traced documentary

This is, admittedly, in response to the previous comment, to put another slant on what I thought was a rare and wonderful documentary. A documentary it definitely is, in that everyone on the screen is playing themselves, and in that it has only the barest of narratives, although it does have a number of well-delineated 'characters' whose lives intertwine with the building process, and who provide some substitute for narrative. These characters speak to the camera or to their friends in front of the camera, but with one or two exceptions it is true, in theory, that if you went to the local construction site and watched and listened, and took the trouble to talk to the bystanders, you could gather the content of this film over a couple of months or so. Whether you would, or whether you would then be able to filter it and make sense of it, is quite another matter. The secret is in the choices which Guerin and his collaborators make, in the contrasts which he can set up, in the beautiful photography (no grainy fake-video footage here, the shabbiness is filmed to be glorious, and we may as well see the magic in it because there isn't any other to be had) and in the readings of the casual dialogues - which aren't nonsense, far from it. They're apparently inconsequential, and they reveal histories and complexes and secrets in every pause. I don't speak Spanish let alone Catalan, so I undoubtedly missed a lot of subtleties (and I can't speak for the pronunciation, but, surely, that would have been part of the point?). Neither do I know Barcelona, but Guerin not only knows it but manages to transmit his love of it to the point that by the end I had the illusion of knowing it a little; and once outside the cinema, it's almost impossible not to look and listen as the film did, in the streets or that local construction site you've ignored up to now.

Yes, perhaps it is a bit too long: one or two sequences could have a minute or two shaved off and the film might gain from it; but it's still a condensation of the reality it presents. Take it at its own pace, be prepared to relax occasionally, but see it!