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| “A Son of Man” Ecuador Center of “The New World” ©2019 Paracas Independent films. |
“A Son of a Man” is an extraordinary and mystical journey to the center of Ecuador’s wilderness. A breathtaking experience.
The architects of this ambitious film, Jamaicanoproblem and Pablo Agüero, found a way to express themselves through the arts, shooting their movie without a script, actors, lighting, or special effects.
They wanted to move further away from the “Dogma Movement” filmmakers and to work on their real story with real people, without falling into the documentary category.
The filmmakers wanted to create a new genre by combining documentary and fiction, yet featuring real-life characters in real situations, interwoven with their amusing history in their exuberant land.
They wanted to move further away from the “Dogma Movement” filmmakers and to work on their real story with real people, without falling into the documentary category.
The filmmakers wanted to create a new genre by combining documentary and fiction, yet featuring real-life characters in real situations, interwoven with their amusing history in their exuberant land.
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| Lily van Ghemen. Luis Felipe Fernández Salvador y Campodonico. Photo José A. Hermosillo ©2019 Festival in LA |
“A Son of a Man” vividly recounts the lives of three generations of a wealthy Ecuadorian family. The characters connect with their heritage, descendants, and nature.
This unbelievable story is narrated through the eyes of young Pipe, the nickname for Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador y Boloña.
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| Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador y Boloña (the son, also known as Pipe), A Son of a Man, ©2019 Paracas Independent films |
In this “wild new adventure.” His son Pipe will try to reconcile old disagreements between his father and his deceased grandfather.
In Latin America, people with money send their children abroad to study. In Pipe’s case, his father had him studying at the Shattuck-Saint Mary’s School in Minnesota, where our story begins.
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| Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador y Campodonico (father), A Son of a Man ©2019 Paracas Independent Films |
Upon arrival, Pipe notices the sharp differences between the USA and his homeland. What he finds even more startling is to see “Men with Guns” guarding the gate of his father’s estate.
Inside the family’s library, young Pipe sees plenty of pictures of his grandfather’s old glories. Those included when he was named the most muscular man on earth or when he was John Wayne’s best friend in California.
Inside the family’s library, young Pipe sees plenty of pictures of his grandfather’s old glories. Those included when he was named the most muscular man on earth or when he was John Wayne’s best friend in California.
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| Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador y Campodonico (father), A Son of a Man ©2019 Paracas Independent Films |
To get to the Incas’ treasure, they have to uncover four stations – the final destination is the one marked with the shape of “Atahualpa’s Tear” - a mythical land. Discovering that place is like seeing a glacier in the jungle.
Pipe’s Captain America jacket represents the strong influence of Western culture in the so-called “New World” in South America.
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| Pipe and his father, Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador y Campodonico, A Son of a Man, ©2019 Paracas Independent films |
The father thinks out loud: “My son, you are not my son. If you think that because you came out of my sperm, you are my son, you are wrong. ‘A son of man’ is not born... it becomes one.”
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| Pipe and his father, Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador y Campodonico, A Son of a Man, ©2019 Paracas Independent films |
The fight between the West and the New World is represented through symbolism. The conflict between the conquistador Francisco Pizarro and the Inca emperor Atahualpa has repercussions in the present.
The legend says, “Only a dead man can see Atahualpa’s eye.”
The legend says, “Only a dead man can see Atahualpa’s eye.”
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| Lily van Ghemen, A Son of a Man, ©2019 Paracas Independent films |
The presence of the German actress Lily van Ghemen is exquisite, and she plays Lily or “La Rubia.” Her beauty can be compared with the exquisiteness of Elena Rojo, a Mexican performer who played Inez in Werner Herzog’s “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” An influential 1970s film.
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| A Son of a Man ©2019 Paracas Independent films |
“A Son of a Man” is fascinating visually speaking, but it needed some trimming and smoother transitions to make its storytelling more fluent and less artsy.
The raucous music, combined with the gorgeous cinematography, heightens the film’s magical realism.
Among the authors in the magic realism genre, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Arturo Ripstein are notable. In their masterworks, they sought spiritual answers to man’s mission on earth.
In World Cinema, we can find other brilliant productions exploring the New World, such as “The Mission,” “Cabeza de Vaca,” “The Fountain,” “The New World,” and, more recently, Colombia’s Oscar nominee “The Embrace of the Serpent.”
The raucous music, combined with the gorgeous cinematography, heightens the film’s magical realism.
Among the authors in the magic realism genre, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Arturo Ripstein are notable. In their masterworks, they sought spiritual answers to man’s mission on earth.
In World Cinema, we can find other brilliant productions exploring the New World, such as “The Mission,” “Cabeza de Vaca,” “The Fountain,” “The New World,” and, more recently, Colombia’s Oscar nominee “The Embrace of the Serpent.”
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| A Son of a Man poster. Photo José A. Hermosillo ©2019 Festival in LA |
According to the filmmakers, this ambitious production was created with love and took ten years.
“A Son of a Man” represents a healing process - a catharsis to exorcize the commanding presence of the director’s father... a man who influenced him and many more people in his home country.
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| Lily van Ghemen. Photo José A. Hermosillo ©2019 Festival in LA |
In a conversation I had with Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador y Campodonico in Westwood, California, he revealed his ambitious attempt to create a new genre in Cinema by producing with his own money a film of epic proportions.
Luis Felipe is a visionary artist who never went to film school. He only wanted to make a fantastic movie about the history of his homeland and his family, and give the Ecuadorian people a well-deserved place in Cinema.
Luis Felipe is a visionary artist who never went to film school. He only wanted to make a fantastic movie about the history of his homeland and his family, and give the Ecuadorian people a well-deserved place in Cinema.
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| José Alberto Hermosillo, Lily van Ghemen. Luis Felipe Fernández Salvador y Campodonico ©2019 Festival in LA |
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