¿Donde Estan Sus Historias?

Courtesy of CineVegas

By Matthew Scott Hunter

Sunday, June 15, 2008 | 10:33 p.m.

Those who avoid foreign films because they don’t like reading subtitles have nothing to fear from ¿Donde Estan Sus Historias? (Where are Their Stories?). There are only a handful of lines in the entire film, and you could easily ignore everyone who speaks without losing the plot. There’s no plot to speak of. This movie takes minimalism to the max.

The film follows Vincente (Gabino Rodriguez), a young Mexican farmer who works on his grandmother’s farm. When Vincente’s uncle shows up to sell the farm in anticipation of granny’s death, Vincente heads to Mexico City to pay a visit to his estranged mother and stop the sale. He ultimately fails, but that doesn’t give anything away, because the movie isn’t about that. It’s about the disconnect between Vincente and his mother—a disconnect that writer-director Nicolas Pereda attempts to make us feel by creating a similar disconnect between the film and the audience.

This ill-advised experiment results in several lengthy handheld tracking shots, showing us Vincente’s back as he walks across mundane landscapes. At least a third of the film is devoted to sequences like this—designed solely to make us feel distanced from the character. This sort of minimalism would even test Andy Warhol’s patience.