Los Versos del Olvido (2017)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 92 minuten
Alternative title: Oblivion Verses
Country:
France / Germany / Netherlands / Chili
Directed by: Alireza Khatami
Stars: Juan Margallo, Tomás del Estal and Manuel Morón
IMDb score:
6,6 (805)
Releasedate: 1 August 2018
Los Versos del Olvido plot
The elderly janitor of a remote morgue has an impeccable memory for everything but names. He spends his days showing bodies to those seeking out their lost loved ones. When protests break out in a nearby town and the military uses the house to hide civilian victims, he discovers the body of an unknown young woman. He remembers his personal losses and embarks on a magical odyssey to give her a proper burial. He gets the help of a mysterious gravedigger who collects stories about the dead, an old woman searching for her long-lost daughter, and a hearse driver haunted by his past.
Actors and actresses
El Hombre de la Morgue
Gravedigger
Driver
Old Woman
Administrator
Real Estate Clerk
Old Functionary
Young Man
Commandant
Hairdresser
Reviews & comments
Cinsault
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- 243 messages
- 516 votes
Surreal film without a clear plot, but sufficiently entertaining and sometimes thought-provoking. In Los Versos del Olvido (verses of oblivion) the main character has forgotten his own name, but he is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to all kinds of facts. He works at a local cemetery, including a mortuary, in an unnamed country, where he takes care of the graves with great dedication. Because Spanish is spoken and it is known that the film was shot in Chile, some associations quickly arise with the regime of the now deceased dictator Pinochet, especially if at some point militia members want to hide the bodies of murdered demonstrators in the morgue and the nameless main character is almost killed because he has seen too much. Or almost... that is actually the question in this debut by Alireza Khatami, in which nothing seems to be what it is and everything is possible. You could see a parallel with and also an indictment of the dictatorial regime in Iran, where the director comes from, especially because the director himself states that the film is about the moral obligation to remember the past and to resist the violence of forgetting. But Los Versos del Olvido is certainly not just a political, socially critical film; In my experience, the film is essentially about human dignity and respect for life, which is supported by sometimes very visually appealing and metaphorical/poetic images.
Despite all this, the film is sometimes difficult to follow and lacks a clear context, which means that it is a lot of filling in and guessing. There's nothing wrong with a film that appeals to your own imagination and fantasy, but in Los Versos del Olvido that goes a bit too far in my opinion. I'm afraid this film will gradually fade into oblivion.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Ferdydurke
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- 1353 messages
- 854 votes
A whale, crying to the heavens.
What is first striking is the modesty with which Khatami approaches this history of murder and disappearance of loved ones. Without losing sight of the heavy reality for even a moment, he manages to give his film a certain light-heartedness, to create an almost meditative atmosphere, a resignation, with even an occasional dryly comic touch.
The convincing performance of Juan Margallo, as the old man who cannot rest until the memory of the dead is secured, helps; but it is also the way in which Khatami blends the real and the magical that makes this a very remarkable debut.
'Can't rest'? The doubt that Khatami repeatedly sows about the old man's state of 'being' gives the whole an extra dimension. Already in the first scene there is talk of 'a nice ending for a film', after the gravedigger's account of a 76-year-old dead man... and there is an execution, a living bricking up in the archive of the killing, crawling out of the grave, and at the end a return to the place of execution...
Metaphorically and poetically sometimes strongly emphasized, perhaps, but there are a number of beautiful discoveries in the film; for me it generally works, although the explanatory radio commentary about the nature of the whales is a bit too much.
In any case, Los Versos del Olvido is a film that deserves a little more attention than it has received here so far. I don't know about the availability in general, but it can at least still be seen via Picl until May 3.
Translated from Dutch · View original
mrklm
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- 11659 messages
- 10059 votes
Very elderly cemetery supervisor [Juan Margallo] has little contact with the outside world. The only meaningful contacts he has are with a gravedigger [Tomás del Estal] and the driver of a hearse [Manuel Morón]. His daily routine is interrupted by a group of men who take over the burial vault and hide the bodies of several people believed to have died in an unexplained incident. The supervisor is fired and dumped in a desert, but he returns to save the body of a young woman. Many unanswered questions in this poetic, but always fascinating puzzle drama with beautiful acting by Margallo and beautifully filmed, sophisticated image compositions
Translated from Dutch · View original
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