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VIFF 2023 Review: The Wait (La Espera)

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Victor Clavijo stars as a Spanish marksman/farmer who seems to be possessed by something supernatural in The Wait.

With the VIFF ending the following day (October 8th) and Halloween about to come, it’s natural to want to see at least one more Altered States film. Though the Spanish film The Wait doesn’t have your common Halloween scariness, it does give you the fear and suspense you look for in such a film.

It is 1973 in the Andalusian countryside. A hunter named Eladio agrees to supervise the hunting grounds of land belonging to Don Francisco. He supervises one of ten grounds Don Francisco owns. He brings his wife Marcia and his son Floren to live on the land, but soon learns the land he supervises is quite desolate. He’s able to take Floren practice shooting, but Marcia is unhappy. She lets him know how much he let her down.

As his service comes close to reaching three years, Don Carlos, Don Francisco’s second in command, offers him a bribe to add an additional three stands to the area. Eladio is reluctant but Marcia wants him to accept since money has been scarce with his duty. Eladio accepts, unaware of what lays ahead. One day, Eladio takes Floren out practice shooting. Other marksmen are on the site. Out of nowhere, a bullet hits Floren in the head. Eladio is heartbroken but Marcia is devastated. She soon commits suicide. How can all these troubles happen to Eladio all at once?

Eladio soon becomes an alcoholic and finds himself in a violent nature he can’t control. The dog also shows moments of violent behavior. Eladio also notices bizarre images during his drunken hallucinations like slaughtered chickens, a goat’s head, and a human toenail in his stew. He sees Marcia in one of his hallucinations, but she curses him. Another hallucination, he sees Floren. He hopes to reunite, but instead sees Floren bloodied from the accident and reminds Eladio of the wrong he did and he will pay.

As the days get closer to the end of the lease, Eladio is frustrated and he goes to the mansion of Don Francisco. He notices something disturbing. He first sees a photograph of a family from three years ago on the land, and another photograph of another family three years earlier on that same land, and another and another. Eladio is scared. Is he part of a trap? Were those families in the photo also subject to that very curse Eladio is going through and claimed his family?

The day finally comes. It’s the end of the three years. Eladio faces up to Don Francisco at his mansion, but he also faces up to Don Carlos, Marcia, Floren and all the families of the other men who accepted that same bribe before. Their fate for what they accepted now becomes Eladio’s. The ending will have you at the edge of your seat.

This is a film that lets the suspense build slowly. The film starts as a man who made a bad purchase on the land and his wife lets him know it. Then the bribe starts the series of misfortunes such as the son’s accidental shooting death and the wife’s suicide. They all seem tragic, but it doesn’t seem like there’s a curse. It’s only until a short time before the lease is set to expire we learn there is a curse. Eladio senses it before we do and unravels it before our eyes. This is a curse that has plagued the families who also leased the land before him. It seems as though Don Francisco has this cursed land to set up families for their tragic fate and we learn about it as Eladio slowly learns about it. Don Francisco even told him about treating the land like family and if one betrays family, he will pay. It seems as though that contract from Don Francisco isn’t simply a three-year lease on the land but something that can be a loyalty test that could end up a “death warrant.” Anything that should be labeled a “death warrant” only kills the individual, but this is something that robs Eladio of prosperity, his family, his possessions, his colleagues and eventually himself. Just like those that leased the land before him! Did they also fall prey to a bribe like Eladio’s?

Another thing that grabs me about this film is that it’s estimated to be set in the year 1973. I find that as something of intrigue to me since Spain was under the fascist regime of dictator Francisco Franco at the time. I have seen two other films that were set during Franco-era Spain: Pan’s Labyrinth and Pa Negre. I’ve come to sense that Franco-era Spain is a common theme in a lot of Spanish film. It’s a period of their history that’s long passed but hard to overcome. Even though there are no specific signs in this film pointing to it, I do sense certain elements in the film reflecting the harshness of that era. Things like how farmers had limited prosperity back then, things like how Eladio was illiterate, and things like corrupt ownership. It can leave one thinking that.

The film itself is intended to be a paranormal thriller. One thing about it is it’s a story that slowly builds over time. The film begins with a slow melodramatic start. It’s when the tragedies in Eladio’s life happen that the story changes and the aftermath when the bizarre and the supernatural occur. The film does a good job in building itself as time progresses, leading up to the climactic finish. At the same time, this appears to be a film that tries to mix many genres together. That’s very tricky to do. The film doesn’t do a stellar accomplishment of trying to mix film genres together but it does a very good job here.

This film is a great work from director/writer F. Javier Gutierrez. This is only his third film in which he’s written and directed. It’s a very impressive work in taking dramatic story and mixing various film genres and styles together into what would eventually become a paranormal thriller. He tells his story not just with the dialogue but also with imagery and effective cinematography that adds to the story. I feel Gutierrez did a very good job, despite the film starting off slow.

Also adding to the story is the acting of Victor Clavijo. With him being the protagonist Eladio, he adds to the story’s intensity with his moments of silence as much as adds to it with the dialogue. Those with supporting roles added to the story and the drama, despite how short of a time they had. The cinematography from Miguel Angel Mora adds to the story and the musical score from Zeltia Montes adds to the intensity.

This film has been able to earn some accolades in the film festival circuit. It’s nominations and wins include: the Official Fantastic Competition at the Sitges – Catalonian Festival; Audience Award for Best Film at the Oldenburg Film Festival; five nominations including Best Director and Best Cinematography at the FilmQuest Festival; Clavijo winning Best Actor and Gutierrez nominated for Best Director at the ScreamFest; and two wins and the Audience Award for Best Picture at the Fantastic Fest.

The Wait is a film about a supernatural curse. It builds slowly, but the suspense greatly builds near the end. Definitely a film that will get your attention.

VIFF 2015 Review: Tough Love (Härte)

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Tough Love is a docudrama of the rough past of World karate champion Andreas Marquardt (right) who is played by Hanno Koffler (left) in his younger days.
Tough Love is a docudrama of the rough past of Andreas Marquardt (right) who is played by Hanno Koffler (left) in his younger days.

Tough Love is a film that tells a story of a life no one would want to have but turns out shining in the end.

The film begins with 59 year-old Andreas Marquardt heading a karate school in Berlin. He’s a former World champion and he enjoys teaching young children.  Parents are very trustworthy of him despite his past. It’s after this introduction that we learn of his shady past.

Andreas was born in Berlin in 1956. His father was abusive to the point he poured a bucket of cold water on him on a winter’s day when he was an infant. His mother divorced his father but that didn’t prevent his father from abusing him again. One time his father taught him how to handshake and squeezed his hand so hard he broke three of Andreas’ bones. Abuse wasn’t just with his father. He lived with his mother and grandparents. His mother would ask him to do sexual favors that were, in a word, unspeakable.

It’s not to say, Andreas was devoid of a proper parent figure. His grandparents played that role. At sixteen, Andreas finally moved out on his own. He pursued a job of pimping as a way to provide a living and pay for his karate training. He also took a job at a funeral home as a way to hide his pimp money from the taxman. One day in the late 70’s, there was a 16 year-old girl who would change his life. Her name was Marion. At first Andreas asked her to do sexual favors and even be one of his hookers under his wing. She agreed however had the feeling she would win his love one day.

This would go on for many years. Marion would continue to work for Andreas but also try to win his love. There were two instances like a Christmas and a breakfast in bed that Marion tried to send him the message of her love but Andreas reacts violently to it and insists she works the business. Later on, Marion takes the witness stand against her father for sexual abuse. Andreas is in the stands and he is surprised to see how her abuse story almost mirrors his own. He’s even given a wake-up call when he sees Marion lying on the streets one night after nearly being beaten to death.

However Andreas’ problems don’t end there. Eventually the police do catch up with his antics and he is arrested in 1994 and put into prison for four years. Marion is able to run a gym that he owns and even sends him a message outside the prison walls that she’s on his mind. Another incident leads Andreas to an additional four years in prison. During that time, he sees his mother for the last time and tells her off just weeks before she dies. Once released from prison, Andreas begins a change of heart and leaves the prostitution business behind. The one thing of it that wasn’t left behind was Marion. It became clear to him she was his soul mate. To this day Andreas doesn’t miss his pimping business.

The thing with this film is that it appears like it’s trying to be both a documentary and a live-action drama. It flashes from Andreas talking of his shady past, in which he also wrote a book on in which this film is based, to the past being acted out by actors. It may have been done before but it’s a question on whether it was done right. I know the director Rosa von Praunheim also included some other creative choices like images of furniture painted on the walls of the setting rather than actual furniture props. I feel that was presented well. I don’t know if the images of furniture worked with this film.

Another choice that had me wondering was if it was a smart choice not to have the actors playing Andy and Marion–Hanno Koffler and Luise Heyer– age. As you probably saw, the actors don’t age chronologically as the timeline passed over the 25 year span. I just wonder in von Praunheim had that as a point to the film.

One choice of von Praunheim’s in which I give her credit for is making the audience Andy during the childhood drama scenes instead of hiring an actor to play Andy. Like how we see Andy’s father looking at us as he gives Andy his bone braking handshake or how his mother looks at us as she’s molesting him or eve oralizing him. Yes, I’m sure people don’t like seeing those kinds of images of children abused whether in fiction or real life. I think it was decided to have the audience be Andy instead for the sake of the sensitive nature. It had to be told but it had to be made watchable.

One thing I think von Praunheim is trying to do in the film is not just tell Andy’s story but also to show how this story is all too common. We hear the story all the time of children who are sexually abused by their parents or other people and they grow up to make the bad choice of going into jobs of ill repute. It’s a story we see all too often. Even seeing what his mother did to him makes you think that where he got his misogyny from. I myself believe that a lot of misogynist men probably adopted that attitude or a hatred toward women from an unhealthy home life. Including Andy’s feelings into the film adds to the theme. You can see in his face why he can’t forgive his parents for what they did to him. Hard feelings run deep. You could easily see in the drama why Andy has feelings to his grandfather when he dies but none to his mother.

However there are times I think of this film to be as much about Marion as it is about Andreas. Andreas became a shady person but it was Marion who felt love for him from the start and knew she would be his one day. It was surprising she was willing to make a prostitute for him of herself during that time. It’s also very unfortunate she had to deal with the verbal and physical abuse from Andreas all those years. Most people would say it would be foolish for a woman to stay with such an abusive man. Even I would want Marion to leave him. However she saw something in him that she knew he was worth loving and worth staying with. The film left me convinced Marion was a godsend to Andreas. The film even left me thinking as well this may be Andreas’ love letter to Marion.

The film does an ambitious job of trying to mesh drama pieces and interview pieces to both make the story come alive and tell the facts. Even taking Andreas back to key places in his life like the prison or the street corner of his arrest or even the cemetery grass area where he scattered his mother’s ashes is another ambitions technique too. I will admit I did question the choices and even the frequency as it goes from drama to documentary. However I would find it hard for me to make better choices. Hanno Koffler and Luise Hayer were good choices to play Andy and Marion. They did well in their roles but they could have aged physically as the time line progressed. Katy Karrenbauer was good as Andy’s mother. She made you want to hate her.

Tough Love tells a story of a life damaged, of a life causing hurt and of a life redeemed, and of the woman that saw the beauty inside the beast. It’s a story that mixes documentary-style interviewing with drama to deliver a story that’s dark and ugly but ends on a beautiful note.