SILVER

[LA FORTALEZA]

Cast out from his middle-class family in Caracas, the aging ne'er-do-well Roque (Jorge Roque Thielen) — alcoholic and dissolute, but still possessed by a daemon of energy — retreats to the Amazon jungle where he begins work on restoring an old tourist lodge. But an old acquaintance, Yoni (Yoni Naranjo) turns up, offering Roque work in his illegal gold mine run by Colombian guerillas. Roque abandons the lodge for the mine, putting himself and his dream of salvation in mortal danger. In a metafictional twist, the character of Roque and his personal struggles were based on filmmaker Jorge Thielen Armand's own father, who Armand then cast to play the role. "A feverish voyage of discovery through the hinterland between madness and salvation." – Wendy Ide, Screen International. Official Selection, 2020 Rotterdam and Busan film festivals, 2021 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. DIR/SCR/PROD Jorge Thielen Armand; SCR/PROD Rodrigo Michelangeli; PROD Manon Ardisson, Rodolfo Cova, Kim Jackson, Zach LeBeau. Venezuela/Colombia/France/Netherlands, 2020, color, 108 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED

No AFI Member passes accepted.