Fictional film
Jauja
D: Lisandro Alonso, ARG/BRA/D/DK/F/MEX/NL/US 2014, 108 min, English subtitles
In the late 19th century, the Danish engineer Dinesen (Viggo Mortensen) and his daughter Inge accompany an expedition deep into Patagonia. When Inge runs off with a soldier, the searching Dinesen penetrates ever further into hostile desert terrain, growing mad with worry... Jauja means Cockaigne, a place of prosperity and happiness. But whoever seeks it becomes lost on the journey.
In his western, Alonso (“Liverpool”), one of the great stylists of young international cinema, is fascinated with an anti-dramatic meditation on the relationship between image, color, space, time and humanity. Winner of the 2014 FIPRESCI Award at Cannes.
“Jauja, that is 19th century Argentina with its pioneers, monomaniacal foreigners, deserts, maidens gone astray – just as a dynamic storyteller of the 21st century dreams it up.” Alan Pauls