Léalo en español
“I can’t imagine why someone wouldn’t want to keep on living,” says Lucas, the teenage protagonist of Firedream (Lumbrensueno), lamenting the death of a friend. The deceased’s mother replies, “perhaps he did not want to keep on dying.” This conversation furnishes a capsule description of the very sober drama Firedream, the Mexican participant in the Biennale College Cinema section of the Venice Film Festival.
The central theme is adolescent angst, which manifests as insecurity, paranoia, boredom, but also as improbable romantic dreams and the desire to continue living. Lucas is a young man who works in a hamburger joint, he lives with his mother and his sister. He likes to take photos and make short videos with his cell phone, but he doesn’t have a strong interest in life. At work, he meets Óscar, a young man who is both realistic about job possibilities and fanciful about almost any other subject: he believes he is receiving cosmic messages, has multiple paranoias, and pretends that the boyfriend of the girl he likes is in reality a passing relationship. Óscar believes they have broken up. The manager of the burger joint is the typical middle manager who pressures employees with dreams of an unachievable future. Lucas’s life moves between the anarchy of Óscar, and the servile capitalism of his boss who believes that being a good employee is a reward in itself. Lucas’s mother tries to make him aware of the reality of his economic situation, and at the same time she wants him to have other interests.
Biennale College Cinema is an advanced film training laboratory that offers a €200,000 grant for the production of a film that must be completed in one year. In Venice 2023, together with Firedream, L’anno dell’uovo will be screened; a film directed by Claudio Casale from Italy, as well as Árni directed by Dorka Vermes from Hungary.
Firedream is constructed from fragments of Lucas’ daily life, connected with poems and reflections — some of them good, some frankly delirious, with an industrial city as a background full of diffuse landscapes and images difficult to identify (a photos credit to a “Moth Laboratory” may give a clue). The effect is at times artistic and at others it seems as if the film itself wants to distance us from the main story. Although there is a temptation to join these texts with the plot, reading them and letting the story flow is the best use they can be put to.
As Lucas wanders around the city, the script leaves us free to decide whether he finds things by chance or if he is looking for them. One example is a pinhole camera workshop, in which a teacher gives a wonderful explanation of optics mixed with philosophy. Consequently Lucas changes his point of view in every way as he begins to question his life.
The film has several shortcomings, notably the direction of the actors, or their lack of experience (with the remarkable exception of Teresita Sánchez), which makes it feel awkward. Yet Firedream offers several lessons even for experienced directors: it has the passionate honesty of a work made with love. The production company used a lot of imagination to work on a micro-budget. This, plus the time constraint, means creativity was combined with military discipline, which is a very difficult combination. The result is a film that bows in Venice and can be screened at many festivals around the world.
Director: José Pablo Escamilla
Screenplay: José Pablo Escamilla, Nicolasa Ruiz
Producer: Diandra Arriaga
Cast: Diego Solis, Imix Lamak, Teresita Sánchez, Francisco Barreiro, Nahid Lugo, Amaresh V Narro
Cinematographer: Miguel Escudero
Editor: Julieta Seco
Production Designer: Constanza Martinez, Daniela Guardado, Isaac Márquez
Costume Designer: Constanza Martinez, Daniela Guardado, Isaac Márquez, Gabriela Martinez Ortiz
Music: Lucerna Records, Isaac Soto
Sound: Laura Carrillo, Gerardo Martinez
Visual Effects: Francisco Borrajo, Miguel Escudero
Production: Colectivo Colmena (Mexico)
80 minutes
In Spanish
