El Sur de una Pasion

Le Sud d’une passion

Susan is a young girl approaching adolescence whose life is sordid. She works as a baby-sitter looking after a boy called Felipe and is the mistress of the boy’s father. Susan lives in a boarding house with her father, a failed tango singer. They work in a second-rate nightclub doing a double act as tango dancers.

Their relationship is incestuous. Susan’s mother left them when Susan was a little girl, her father took to drink and a life of degradation. When he ends up in prison the only solution Susan can think of for paying her father’s debts and getting him released is to resort to prostitution.

Alone, she meets Lili, a prostitute who lives in the same boarding house. A relationship full of frustration develops between the two women. Lili represents everything Susan is afraid of: physical degradation, failure, and a sordid life. While her father is still in prison, Susan encounters success at the nightclub thanks to an influential lover. Susan acquires the symbols of wealth that she so hated before (a flat, smart clothes, and a "certain respectability"). One evening, when she comes home she finds her father waiting for her on the doorstep...

Cristina Fasulino was born on March 5th, 1965 in Buenos Aires. In 1983 she studied film at the National Film Institute where she obtained a degree in film directing in 1989. From 1990 and 1994 she studied literature and philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires. She wrote screenplays and adaptations of the works of Argentinaan and foreign authors for television. She directed several short films. The South of a Passion is her first feature film. Director’s point of view

"The South of a Passion" recounts the story of an immoral passion. A story which takes place in a region of the South where there are few opportunities to escape poverty. The film belongs to what can be termed as "A Tango Story". The imagery of the tango is based on a number of recurrent themes: solitude, the isolation of people living on the edge, promiscuity, and failure. This story is permeated by the rhythm, the cadence, and the tone of the tango, an introverted, moody dance (...) But Susan wants to escape from this closed world, and she wants to improve her lot, at any cost. (...)
For them love is as oppressive as a life on the edge of society, they are stifled by it as much as by nostalgia and sadness, it is as sticky as the sweltering heat of the summer.

Production:
MANDRAGORA PRODUCCIONES S.R.L
Suipacha 1140
(1008) Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Telephone: 005411 4304 1225
Fax: 005411 4554 1692
E-mail: mandragora_prod@ciudad.com.ar

Associate Producer France:
LES FILMS DE LA CROISADE
Catherine Hannoun et Emmanuel Giraud
6, Boulevard de Strasbourg
75010 Paris (France)
Telephone: +33 1 53 38 88 88
Fax: +33 1 53 38 88 89
Portable: + 33(0) 6 14 70 19 53
E-mail: filmsdelacroisade@noos.fr

Executive Producer:
EL PUENTE PRODUCCIONES
Carlos Pellegrini
125, piso 1°B
1009 Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Telephone: +5411 4325 0427/0429
Fax: +5411 4328 2049
E-mail: productora@el-puente.com.ar

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), HUBERT BALS FUND-ROTTERDAM FILM FESTIVAL (Pays Bas)

Festivals:
The Festival des Trois Continents in Nantes, competition section (France) 2000
Rotterdam International Film Festival (Netherlands) 2001
Hong Kong International Film Festival (China) 2001