Álvaro

José Alejandro González

Colombia / 2021/ 75’

WORLD PREMIERE

Álvaro is the portrait of a Colombian 70-year-old man who has lived 45 in the United States. While addressing inmigration and broken promises, González’ documentary also talks about other things: loneliness, old age, and an uprooting that does not depends on the place in the world, as it is mostly a weariness on the self that is carried anywhere. Alvaro is restlessly irked: with his partner Doris, who he decides to abandon, with the scarcity of his life in New York, with his past and decisions that he made. 

The director follows Álvaro, records him in his apartment, in his drifting on the streets and metro wagons, and even in a temporary come back to Colombia, to the old landscapes of childhood and youth. In the discontent of Álvaro seems to be hidden one single illusion: be himself, enjoy the time, rest. Faced with the improbability of this simple dream, the documentary becomes the utopian meeting place, where the director and the character embrace each other in complicity. And although Álvaro’s emptiness and loneliness will continue until the end of the film, it is in itself the achievement, the form of a shared dream.

By Pedro Adrián Zuluaga

AWARDS / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Panorama de Cine Colombiano, Paris 2021

Producer: Felipe Guerrero | Photography: José Alejandro González | Sound desing: Mercedes Gaviria Jaramillo | Editing: Juan Carlos Sánchez 

CINEMATECA DE BOGOTÁ / Capital Theatre

Monday, November 1st, 6:00 p.m.  

Available from October 26th to November 1st, on the Virtual Theatre MIDBO for Colombia.