By Juan Francisco Pablo
How do you overcome that self-defeating scream that sabotages everything you do? How does that serene whisper that we call security come back telling us that everything can be done? Tell me how. This is how a swaying Marianela Vega (“Away,” 2002, and “Payasos,” 2009) begins.
Vega, the film director from Peru, brings us her fourth short film and the first part of a series of two catharses, as necessary for her as it is involuntarily for us. “Conversaciones I” (2005) becomes a purifying voice that strips us of uncertainties, the pain that repentance brings, the self-pity, and the sharp severity against ourselves.
Cinema, as an exercise of purification, must be one of the most beautiful expressions that characterize this art. The best filmmakers the world has given us, first of all tormented people, have needed to use cinema as a confessional for what is stagnant in the soul and must come out—preferable to rotting. Because of this, a short film of this lineage is definitely revitalizing. Vega has no pretensions other than finding freedom from grief. It is even curious to observe how these cathartic films have inadvertently acquired a high value within cinematic art. To mention some of the cases that this phenomenon encompasses, the list includes “Zerkalo” (1975) by the Russian Andrei Tarkovsky. It uses the inherent ambiguity of the lengthy time to write under the celluloid canvas, verses that complete the resilient poem, finally closing the wounds despite having persevered over time.
Exactly what tone is used to say the most important thing in our lives? The first voice is Vega, complaining, insecure, and hesitant, taking charge of explaining the context that led her to that moment. As she exposes her mother’s diffuse divorce when she was very young, her echo resonates through the room like a dark prison that Vega has taken upon herself to enter. She is trapped in the soundless emptiness of the walls, with no reply.
The second voice is calm and affectionate, Vega’s mother illustrating the reason for her divorce with the director’s father. It is a fascinating way to deal with such a delicate subject without generating rejection. For Vega’s mother, it means having expelled pain and memories in an onslaught that lasted for years but where she now is without regrets. The tone of voice acquiring security as well as affection occurs in Vega as she is coming out of confinement, symbolized by the camera filming the room door finally opening.
The two of them never talk together in the same place, but it seems that they do. Vega’s work as a filmmaker bets on the control of voiceovers, and she offers it to montage. With it she recreates a space that establishes her presence and a time that connects them. Mother and daughter are not together, but their voices are.
“Conversaciones I” is a wonderful artifact for a crucial talk that could not be sustained while facing each other. It is the hope for people who cannot open up to the world but need it. It is the perfect example that cinema is undoubtedly a treatment for the traumas we carry.
Conversaciones I
(Peru, 2005)
Cinematography and direction by: Marianela Vega
Starring: Cristina Oroza, Marianela Vega
Running time: 6 minutes
