We have a showcase on Argentina in our festival this year. Unfortunately I have not actually seen ALL the films in this showcase this year but the ones I have seen are amazing. One example is the film LA RABIA. This is the simple story of small farming families. There is a perceived slight or affront, between neighbors, some sexual infidelities and a little girl who tells too much even without speaking a word.
In fact the thing I liked best about this film was it’s overall use of silence or voiceless ness, the dominant theme of the film. Silences are what define the characters in this world whether it is the mute daughter or the cheating wife; people are expressed by what isn't said. And I think this film with its graphic depiction of animal slaughter is saying more with its silence. The biggest silence of all of course is the lie that we tell ourselves every day.
We are not in control of our lives or our worlds no more than the farmyard pig controls when the butcher's knife comes for him and the more we try to convince ourselves that we control our bodies or our fates, the more we devolve into those primal beasts exerting influence over smaller weaker being whenever and wherever we can. It’s futile to try and escape this vicious food chain and trying to only leads to rage....
LA RABIA (or rage) plays AFI FEST Thursday November 6th at 7:15 and Friday November 7th at 3:30 pm.
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