La Cienaga

Le Marécage

February in the northwest of Argentina can be uncomfortably hot and humid. Bodies become sluggish and sticky, while tensions rise. The sun cracks the earth. Tropical rains cause swampy terrain - deadly traps for heavier animals, but a hotbed for happy vermin...

It’s hot in Northwest Argentina in the month of February.The heat and humidity exacerbate rising tensions and people’s bodies are overcome with a sweaty indolence... Tropical rains transform the land parched by the sun into a quagmire, a deadly trap for large animals and a breeding ground for vermin. Mecha is fifty. She has four children who often hurt themselves, a husband who dies his hair, and grumpy servants.To forget all this she drinks.As her cousin Tali would say, alcohol goes in one end but doesn’t come out the other, ever.

Tali has four noisy young children and a husband who loves his home, his family and hunting. Both families live in the town of La Cienaga (The Marsh).

To escape from the stifling heat, Mecha and her family spend the summer at La Mandragora, a vast, run-down estate. The swimming pool is dirty, but provides welcome relief from the heat and life continues with its little mishaps and major dramas. An accident will unite the two families at La Mandragora during this summer, during a season in Hell.

Lucrecia Martel was born 14 December 1966 in Salta in the North of Argentina. She Studied social communications at the University of Buenos Aires, animation film at the Avellanada School, then filmmaking at the Argentinaan Film Centre and video film techniques at the Rodolfo Hermida School. She directed several documentaries and short films such as "Le Roi Mort" in 1995 before directing La Cienega, her first feature film, the screenplay of which obtained the Sundance / NHK Filmmakers Award in 1999.

Director’s point of view

La Cienaga doesn’t obey conventional narrative rules.
There is no hidden truth to be found by the heroes, nor is there any link between cause and effect in the events affecting Mecha and Tali’s two families. Rather than building up to a dramatic crescendo, the film proceeds through an accumulation of innocuous situations which often lead to nothing, but sometimes end fatally.
All the characters in La Cienaga feel extremely uneasy in the presence of nature. I wanted to film landscapes that had no picturesque qualities. The natural surroundings are neither pleasant nor welcoming. I refuse to accept the commonly held romantic idea that nature rhymes with harmony.
Provincialism plays a key role in the film. In Buenos Aires, people take a modern, direct approach in dealing with life’s problems. In the provinces, however, people tend to tell long complicated and often absurd anecdotes in a plea for compassion and an effort to overcome fears.
La Cienega is permeated by a feeling of constant unease. The film depicts a society that has lost its traditions but which cannot afford the security that could make up for it. A society with a raw sensuality which is only skin-deep. A society that lives vaguely hoping that nothing will ever change, and in terror of everything repeating itself, indefinitely.

Production:
LITA STANTIC PRODUCCIONES
Lita Stantic
Av. Santa Fé 3205, piso no 2, bureau 31
(1425) Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Telephone: +5411 4823-7245
Fax: +5411 4821-0316
E-mail: lstantic@elsitio.net

Coproduction:
CUATRO CABEZAS FILMS, Diego Guebel, Ana Aizenberg, Mario Pergolini (Argentina), JOSE MARIA MORALES (Espagne)

Line producer in charge of sound production:
TS PRODUCTIONS
Miléna Poylo
73, rue Notre Dame des Champs
75006 Paris (France)
Telephone: 00 33 (0) 1 53 10 24 00
Fax: 00 33 (0) 1 43 26 92 23
E-mail: tsprod@club-internet.fr

With the participation of:
FONDS SUD CINEMA (ministère des Affaires étrangères et Centre National de la Cinématographie-France), INCAA (Institut National de Cinéma et des Arts Audiovisuels-Argentina), SUNDANCE/NHK International Filmakers Award (Japon), NDF (Nippon Film Development Finance-Japon), Fondation MONTECINEMAVERITA (Switzerland), Programme IBERMEDIA (Espagne)

International Sales:
ORFEO FILMS INTERNATIONAL
Head Office: Riehler Strasse 1,
D-50668 Köln
Telephone: +49-221-130 56 60
Fax: +49-221-130 56 61
E-mail: info@orfeofilms.com

Zurich Office: Gasometerstrasse 9,
CH-8005 Zurich
Telephone: +41-1-274 10 90
Fax: +41-1-274 10 99
E-mail: info@orfeofilms.com

Festivals:
Berlin Film Festival, official competition (Germany) 2001:
The Alfred Bauer Prize for Best First Film
The "Coup de cœur" and "Découverte de la critique française" prizes at the 13th "Rencontres Cinémas d’Amérique Latine" in Toulouse (France) 2001