If There Be Thorns: A Road Trip to an Almost Imperceptible Romance in Graceful Debut
For his feature film debut, Pablo Giorgelli has created a slow burn road trip film set almost entirely within the confines of a truck cab. With limited characters and settings, and absolutely no music, Las Acacias is nearly a silent film with large chunks of time passing and nary a word uttered. But despite these absences, a deliberate and painstaking portrait of longing and love threads itself quietly between its two main characters, to realistic and moving effect.
Rubén (Germán de Silva), a lonesome truck driver is about to haul lumber from somewhere in the Paraguayan countryside to Buenos Aires. We learn he has been asked by his employer to provide passage for a woman, Jacinta (Hebe Duarte) and her daughter on this haul. With smoke rising from the scorched earth matching the fumes of Rubén’s cigarette smoke,...
For his feature film debut, Pablo Giorgelli has created a slow burn road trip film set almost entirely within the confines of a truck cab. With limited characters and settings, and absolutely no music, Las Acacias is nearly a silent film with large chunks of time passing and nary a word uttered. But despite these absences, a deliberate and painstaking portrait of longing and love threads itself quietly between its two main characters, to realistic and moving effect.
Rubén (Germán de Silva), a lonesome truck driver is about to haul lumber from somewhere in the Paraguayan countryside to Buenos Aires. We learn he has been asked by his employer to provide passage for a woman, Jacinta (Hebe Duarte) and her daughter on this haul. With smoke rising from the scorched earth matching the fumes of Rubén’s cigarette smoke,...
- 9/4/2012
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Las Acacias; Another Earth; Switch; The Big Year; Breaking Wind Part 1
No matter how spectacular, expensive or star-studded Hollywood blockbusters may be, there will always be vibrant, inventive, international gems that consistently prove that less is more. Very little happens in Pablo Giorgelli's debut feature Las Acacias (2011, Verve, 12), a pitch-perfect, low-key road movie about a long-distance lorry driver (Germán de Silva) who agrees to transport a young woman (Hebe Duarte) from Paraguay to Buenos Aires, only to discover that she has a five-month-old child in tow.
Initially dismayed by the prospect of the overcrowded journey ahead, loner Rubén gradually warms to his charges, and a hesitant relationship emerges between him and Jacinta. Casting an established actor (De Silva) opposite a talented newcomer (Duarte), Giorgelli conjures an extraordinary balance between an air of unaffected naturalism and a precisely defined, acutely observed dissection of human interaction. The result is an absolutely...
No matter how spectacular, expensive or star-studded Hollywood blockbusters may be, there will always be vibrant, inventive, international gems that consistently prove that less is more. Very little happens in Pablo Giorgelli's debut feature Las Acacias (2011, Verve, 12), a pitch-perfect, low-key road movie about a long-distance lorry driver (Germán de Silva) who agrees to transport a young woman (Hebe Duarte) from Paraguay to Buenos Aires, only to discover that she has a five-month-old child in tow.
Initially dismayed by the prospect of the overcrowded journey ahead, loner Rubén gradually warms to his charges, and a hesitant relationship emerges between him and Jacinta. Casting an established actor (De Silva) opposite a talented newcomer (Duarte), Giorgelli conjures an extraordinary balance between an air of unaffected naturalism and a precisely defined, acutely observed dissection of human interaction. The result is an absolutely...
- 4/10/2012
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Family and little miracles
The external trip in Las Acacias takes us 900 miles from Asunción in Paraguay to Buenos Aires on board a lumber truck, driven by a reserved Rubén (Germán de Silva), with a mother (serene non-actress Hebe Duarte) and child as arranged passengers. The internal trip is about human connections.
Walking out into MoMA's Sculpture Garden with the film's director Pablo Giorgelli, together with New York Film Festival director and New Directors/New Films selection committee member Richard Peña, Giorgelli told...
The external trip in Las Acacias takes us 900 miles from Asunción in Paraguay to Buenos Aires on board a lumber truck, driven by a reserved Rubén (Germán de Silva), with a mother (serene non-actress Hebe Duarte) and child as arranged passengers. The internal trip is about human connections.
Walking out into MoMA's Sculpture Garden with the film's director Pablo Giorgelli, together with New York Film Festival director and New Directors/New Films selection committee member Richard Peña, Giorgelli told...
- 3/28/2012
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
"Forty-one years young, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art's annual New Directors/New Films festival is committed to compiling a slate of artistically diverse films from every corner of the world," writes Ed Gonzalez, introducing Slant's collection of reviews. "Twenty-eight countries represent the 29 feature films (24 narrative, five documentary) and 12 shorts that make up this year's program, which kicks off on March 21 with a screening of Where Do We Go Now?, Nadine Lakaki's follow-up to Caramel, and closes with a special surprise screening that won't be revealed to the audience until it screens at Film Society on Sunday, April 1. Any guesses?"
Not from this corner, though the wish-list runs pretty long. "We weren't planning to do a surprise for New Directors," Richard Peña tells the Fslc's Jonathan Robbins, "but there is a unique situation with this film." As for Nd/Nf as a whole, Peña...
Not from this corner, though the wish-list runs pretty long. "We weren't planning to do a surprise for New Directors," Richard Peña tells the Fslc's Jonathan Robbins, "but there is a unique situation with this film." As for Nd/Nf as a whole, Peña...
- 3/23/2012
- MUBI
A truck driver agrees to transport a woman and her baby, not anticipating the change it may bring to his quiet life.
Hauling timber from Paraguay to Buenos Aires, truck driver Rubén (Germán de Silva) is lumbered with two passengers. Rubén is the sort of person who shies from human contact. He doesn't want to interact with Jacinta (Hebe Duarte) and her baby Anahí (Nayra Calle Mamani). Over the course of the film Anahí brings him out of his shell, just a little.
Las Acacias is a slow subtle film which focuses on the interaction of the three main characters within the bubble...
Hauling timber from Paraguay to Buenos Aires, truck driver Rubén (Germán de Silva) is lumbered with two passengers. Rubén is the sort of person who shies from human contact. He doesn't want to interact with Jacinta (Hebe Duarte) and her baby Anahí (Nayra Calle Mamani). Over the course of the film Anahí brings him out of his shell, just a little.
Las Acacias is a slow subtle film which focuses on the interaction of the three main characters within the bubble...
- 12/3/2011
- by Donald Munro
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Hugo (U)
(Martin Scorsese, 2011, Us) Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Chloë Grace Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen. 126 mins.
Eyebrows were raised and expectations lowered at the prospect of a Scorsese-made 3D family movie – but now it all makes sense. This is less a kids' romp than a hymn to early cinema – sugar-coated with a junior steampunk adventure revolving around an Parisian orphan and his mystery automaton. It's a satisfyingly lavish affair technically, with a story that's intelligent and heartfelt.
We Have A Pope (PG)
(Nanni Moretti, 2011, Ita/Fra) Nanni Moretti, Michel Piccoli, Jerzy Stuhr. 105 mins.
Moretti's Vatican satire is wry rather than scathing, which will disappoint many. But there's fun to be had as Piccoli's panicked new pope seeks therapy from Moretti's secular psychoanalyst.
Surviving Life (15)
(Jan Svankmajer, 2010, Cze) Václav Helsus, Klára Issová, Zuzana Krónerová. 109 mins.
More light-hearted Freudian comedy, with Monty Python-style cut-out animation, as a middle-aged man prefers his dream world to reality,...
(Martin Scorsese, 2011, Us) Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Chloë Grace Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen. 126 mins.
Eyebrows were raised and expectations lowered at the prospect of a Scorsese-made 3D family movie – but now it all makes sense. This is less a kids' romp than a hymn to early cinema – sugar-coated with a junior steampunk adventure revolving around an Parisian orphan and his mystery automaton. It's a satisfyingly lavish affair technically, with a story that's intelligent and heartfelt.
We Have A Pope (PG)
(Nanni Moretti, 2011, Ita/Fra) Nanni Moretti, Michel Piccoli, Jerzy Stuhr. 105 mins.
Moretti's Vatican satire is wry rather than scathing, which will disappoint many. But there's fun to be had as Piccoli's panicked new pope seeks therapy from Moretti's secular psychoanalyst.
Surviving Life (15)
(Jan Svankmajer, 2010, Cze) Václav Helsus, Klára Issová, Zuzana Krónerová. 109 mins.
More light-hearted Freudian comedy, with Monty Python-style cut-out animation, as a middle-aged man prefers his dream world to reality,...
- 12/3/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★☆ Camera d'Or winner Las Acacias (2011), directed by Argentinian filmmaker Pablo Giorgelli and starring Germán de Silva and Hebe Duarte, is a potent film of subtlety, silence and charm. This is a road movie with a difference following single mother Jancita (Duarte) and baby Anahí (Nayra Calle Mamani) as they travel to Buenos Aires to visit Jancita's cousin. This simple premise is treated with deft skill and tenderness as it explores the themes of isolation, loss and loneliness.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 12/2/2011
- by Daniel Green
- CineVue
A genre-straddling gem from south America which leaves you breathless despite being almost wordless
A relationship movie, a road movie, a silent movie: Las Acacias is all these. Pablo Giorgelli has made a film that unfolds almost wordlessly, but very eloquently, and the unforced performances of its two leads make it absolutely beguiling. German de Silva plays Ruben, a middle-aged truck driver who has the regular task of hauling lumber from Paraguay to Buenos Aires. Yet this time he has a passenger, a young woman called Jacinta, played by Hebe Duarte, whom he is taking as a favour for a friend. To Ruben's very obvious dismay, however, Jacinta is bringing along her five-month-old baby. This was not part of the deal. With tremendous skill and easy charm, De Silva and Duarte show how the relationship between the two gradually changes. We appear to be living with Ruben and Jacinta in...
A relationship movie, a road movie, a silent movie: Las Acacias is all these. Pablo Giorgelli has made a film that unfolds almost wordlessly, but very eloquently, and the unforced performances of its two leads make it absolutely beguiling. German de Silva plays Ruben, a middle-aged truck driver who has the regular task of hauling lumber from Paraguay to Buenos Aires. Yet this time he has a passenger, a young woman called Jacinta, played by Hebe Duarte, whom he is taking as a favour for a friend. To Ruben's very obvious dismay, however, Jacinta is bringing along her five-month-old baby. This was not part of the deal. With tremendous skill and easy charm, De Silva and Duarte show how the relationship between the two gradually changes. We appear to be living with Ruben and Jacinta in...
- 12/2/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★☆☆ You know those long awkward car journeys you use to have as a kid in a foreigner's car, crossing the border from Paraguay to Argentina? Pablo Giorgelli's Las Acacias (2011) - which receives its UK premiere tonight at the 55th BFI London Film Festival - is one of those. At 90 minutes, it's a slow-paced road trip, but one that soon finds it own charming gear.
Jacinta (Hebe Duarte) is heading to Buenos Aires to see her family. Reluctantly, Rubén (Germán de Silva) agrees to give her a lift as a favour to his boss - and consequently finds out that she has a baby too.
As Las Acacias bumps along, the two inevitably become close, but this is far from the romanticised road trips of Hollywood. They barely even talk to each other. What dialogue there is (about 10 minutes of the total runtime) is short and sparse, but the chemistry between the couple is tangible,...
Jacinta (Hebe Duarte) is heading to Buenos Aires to see her family. Reluctantly, Rubén (Germán de Silva) agrees to give her a lift as a favour to his boss - and consequently finds out that she has a baby too.
As Las Acacias bumps along, the two inevitably become close, but this is far from the romanticised road trips of Hollywood. They barely even talk to each other. What dialogue there is (about 10 minutes of the total runtime) is short and sparse, but the chemistry between the couple is tangible,...
- 10/17/2011
- by Daniel Green
- CineVue
Updated through 5/21 — with awards announcements.
As noted last week, with support from the 4+1 Film Festival, we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of Critics' Week with a free retrospective of some of the greatest films screened over the past 50 editions. What follows is a roundup of what the critics are saying about the films screening this year.
"Jonathan Caouette's film Tarnation — created for $300 (£185) on his iMac out of old Super 8 videos and family photos — created a stir at Cannes in 2004 for its original visual language," begins Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian. "In his latest he returns to Tarnation's material: his rich but intensely difficult family life. At the heart of Walk Away Renée is a road trip he takes with his mother, Renée, from Houston to New York State, as he helps her transfer from one assisted-living facility to another. Renée, who received electric shock therapy from the age...
As noted last week, with support from the 4+1 Film Festival, we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of Critics' Week with a free retrospective of some of the greatest films screened over the past 50 editions. What follows is a roundup of what the critics are saying about the films screening this year.
"Jonathan Caouette's film Tarnation — created for $300 (£185) on his iMac out of old Super 8 videos and family photos — created a stir at Cannes in 2004 for its original visual language," begins Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian. "In his latest he returns to Tarnation's material: his rich but intensely difficult family life. At the heart of Walk Away Renée is a road trip he takes with his mother, Renée, from Houston to New York State, as he helps her transfer from one assisted-living facility to another. Renée, who received electric shock therapy from the age...
- 5/21/2011
- MUBI
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.