LITIGANTE
****
Director: Franco Lolli
Screenwriters: Franco Lolli, Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq and Virginie Legeay
Principal cast:
Carolina Sanín
Leticia Gómez
Antonio Martinez
Alejandra Sarria
Vladimir Durán
David Roa
Country: Colombia/France
Classification: M
Runtime: 93 mins.
Australian release date: 30 July 2020.
It’s not surprising that Franco Lolli’s second film, Litigante, was selected to launch Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival last year. This is a tight observation of the sacrifices made in dealing with daily life, when things become complicated and fraught with problems, particularly when health, relationships and careers come under scrutiny. Focusing on a mother and her two adult daughters, Lolli draws his audience into the vortex of a drama that is full of tension and frustration as the different personalities attempt to deal with circumstances that are accelerating out of control.
Set in Bogotá, Colombia, the film opens with the sobering sight of a woman, Leticia (Leticia Gómez), being fed into the belly of an MRI machine. It turns out that she has terminal lung cancer, has had a round of chemotherapy and has just learnt that she has to go through it all again. On the drive home with her eldest daughter, Silvia (Carolina Sanín), Leticia announces (as she lights up a cigarette!) that she has had enough and doesn’t want any more chemo, preferring to let the cancer take its course. The relationship between the two women is highly volatile and we learn that they share the same profession, both being lawyers, although Leticia has retired and Silvia is working for a government agency. The third member of the family is the younger daughter, María José (Alejandra Sarria), who is caught in the middle of her domineering mother and her argumentative sister and tries to be the voice of reason. What unites the three women is Silvia’s young son, Antonio (Antonio Martinez), who they all dote on. More than anything, he is the glue that keeps them all together. Complicating matters is a corruption scandal in Silvia’s workplace and a budding relationship between her and a journalist, Abel (Vladimir Durán), who she met when he publicly criticised her employer during a radio broadcast. This new relationship only adds fuel to the already increasing emotional fire raging between mother and daughter.
Litigante is a powerful viewing experience that completely draws you into the life of this middle-class family as it desperately tries to deal with the impending death of the matriarch. It is utterly convincing, almost documentary in style, so it’s incredible to learn that Leticia is played by Folli’s real-life mother and Silvia by his second cousin and that both women are non-professional actors. The pair deliver incendiary performances which are indelible, so it was natural to assume that they were veterans of the Colombian theatre and film world; to realise that they are amateurs is astounding. Young Antonio Martinez, too, is an absolute delight; the love he exudes is natural and non-discriminatory and his on-screen presence is very special. The close camera-work by cinematographer Luis Armando Arteaga, who also shot the critically acclaimed Paraguayan movie The Heiresses, and the film’s grainy look add to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the family’s situation.
While Litigante is pretty intense viewing, it effectively reminds you that life always throws up difficulties (not just during a pandemic!) and the need to find compassion and awareness during such times is always with us.
Screenwriters: Franco Lolli, Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq and Virginie Legeay
Principal cast:
Carolina Sanín
Leticia Gómez
Antonio Martinez
Alejandra Sarria
Vladimir Durán
David Roa
Country: Colombia/France
Classification: M
Runtime: 93 mins.
Australian release date: 30 July 2020.
It’s not surprising that Franco Lolli’s second film, Litigante, was selected to launch Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival last year. This is a tight observation of the sacrifices made in dealing with daily life, when things become complicated and fraught with problems, particularly when health, relationships and careers come under scrutiny. Focusing on a mother and her two adult daughters, Lolli draws his audience into the vortex of a drama that is full of tension and frustration as the different personalities attempt to deal with circumstances that are accelerating out of control.
Set in Bogotá, Colombia, the film opens with the sobering sight of a woman, Leticia (Leticia Gómez), being fed into the belly of an MRI machine. It turns out that she has terminal lung cancer, has had a round of chemotherapy and has just learnt that she has to go through it all again. On the drive home with her eldest daughter, Silvia (Carolina Sanín), Leticia announces (as she lights up a cigarette!) that she has had enough and doesn’t want any more chemo, preferring to let the cancer take its course. The relationship between the two women is highly volatile and we learn that they share the same profession, both being lawyers, although Leticia has retired and Silvia is working for a government agency. The third member of the family is the younger daughter, María José (Alejandra Sarria), who is caught in the middle of her domineering mother and her argumentative sister and tries to be the voice of reason. What unites the three women is Silvia’s young son, Antonio (Antonio Martinez), who they all dote on. More than anything, he is the glue that keeps them all together. Complicating matters is a corruption scandal in Silvia’s workplace and a budding relationship between her and a journalist, Abel (Vladimir Durán), who she met when he publicly criticised her employer during a radio broadcast. This new relationship only adds fuel to the already increasing emotional fire raging between mother and daughter.
Litigante is a powerful viewing experience that completely draws you into the life of this middle-class family as it desperately tries to deal with the impending death of the matriarch. It is utterly convincing, almost documentary in style, so it’s incredible to learn that Leticia is played by Folli’s real-life mother and Silvia by his second cousin and that both women are non-professional actors. The pair deliver incendiary performances which are indelible, so it was natural to assume that they were veterans of the Colombian theatre and film world; to realise that they are amateurs is astounding. Young Antonio Martinez, too, is an absolute delight; the love he exudes is natural and non-discriminatory and his on-screen presence is very special. The close camera-work by cinematographer Luis Armando Arteaga, who also shot the critically acclaimed Paraguayan movie The Heiresses, and the film’s grainy look add to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the family’s situation.
While Litigante is pretty intense viewing, it effectively reminds you that life always throws up difficulties (not just during a pandemic!) and the need to find compassion and awareness during such times is always with us.