(Originally reviewed Sept. 24, 2021)
Agrobusiness is a dry and forbidding subject, but it is only a backdrop against which human frailty plays out its tragic destiny in The Employer and the Employee (El empleado y el patrón). The making of the film itself is a textbook example of the difficulties facing Latin American filmmakers searching for funds. Yet the Uruguay-Argentina-Brazil-France coproduction, produced with public and private funds and actors from each country, works well as an ensemble piece firmly rooted in Gaucho culture and Uruguayan soil.
The third feature written and directed by Uruguayan filmmaker Manolo Nieto Zas, it premiered in Cannes Directors Fortnight in May before closing the Latin Horizons section in San Sebastian. Nieto (who previously directed The Dog Pound and The Militant) here continues to explore father-son relationships in a hostile environment that nevertheless dazzles in its beauty, captured in the long-held panoramic shots of cinematographer Arauco Hernandez Holz, and contrasted with intimate indoor locations. That vast landscape dwarfs the work of the farmhands riding gigantic mechanical harvesters that reduce them to mere cogs, like insects toiling to survive in the grim economies of scale. The script works along two lines that are sometimes parallel and other times intertwine, and the camera follows that dichotomy beautifully, as in the shot of a horse riding along the riverbank, its reflection on the water following the rider like a ghost.
The macrocosm of the plantation and microcosm inside the homes are juxtaposed without becoming too obvious or predictably preachy re: class struggle, a welcome evolution from more militant films of the past. The characters are finely drawn – the boss is sometimes motivated by good intentions, the employee sometimes by greed or ambition; both feel they are fulfilling their duty as sons and fathers; both are wracked by guilt and awaken our sympathy and understanding. Professional Argentinean actor Nahuel Perez Biscayart convincingly portrays the tormented young employer, trying to please and obey his father, while local newcomer Cristian Borges rises to the challenge with a commanding screen presence as his shy, reluctant employee.
The inner lives and passions of the characters are revealed in a sparse dialog or eloquently mute expressions by a cast that mixes professional actors with first-time performers recruited from the rural surroundings. This lends authenticity to the drama that unfolds, where death and suffering are mercifully kept off-camera, with effective uses of natural sound and editing. The affection of the two young fathers, boss and employee, for their babies, or a gaucho’s hand expertly stroking a horse’s flanks, speak volumes and set up the fatalistic events that unfold as the story becomes more complex. After a slow start, the film’s pace evolves and rewards the viewer beyond the minimalist story.
Whereas Giuseppe De Santis’s Italian classic Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice) used epic strokes to paint the tough lives of the women who harvested rice by hand, in Nieto’s contemporary tale the soybean harvest is mechanical but still bitter in exploiting the risky labor of local farmhands, who deliver crops to demanding, distant markets. Family dynamics between husband and wives, fathers and sons, lend further depth to the story of characters trapped in their roles, and pits the simple life of hunting and riding in silence against the noisy, messy escape provided by the local bar and brothel. The ending is understated yet effective, as the film follows a cathartic real-life horse race.
Director, screenplay: Manuel Nieto Zas
Cast: Nahuel Perez Biscayart, Cristian Borges, Justina Bustos, Fatima Quintanilla, Jean Pierre Noher
Producers: Manuel Nieto, Barbara Francisco, Georgina Baish, Cecilia Salim, Paola Wink, Michael Wahrmann, Julia Alvez, Nathalie Trafford
Cinematography: Arauco Hernandez Holz
Editing: Pablo Riera
Music: Holocausto Vegetal
Sound: Catriel Vildosola
Production companies: Roken Films (Uruguay), Pasto Cine (Argentina), Vulcana Cinema (Brazil), Paraiso Production Diffusion (France), Murillo Cine (Argentina), Sancho & Punta (Brazil), Nadador Cine (Uruguay)
World sales: Latido Films
Venue: San Sebastian Film Festival (Horizontes Latinos)
In Spanish, Portuguese, French
106 minutes
