LA LAGUNA DEL SOLDADO – THE SOLDIER‘S LAGOON
Pablo Álvarez-Mesa | Colombia, Canada 2024, 76 Min. | Spanish with engl. Subtitles
Austrian Premiere
TUESADY, 13.05. | 9:30 pm
De France, Saal 1 | TICKETS
‘There is a lot of pain in these mountains.’ Thick fog hangs over the Colombian Páramo. Drops of water roll off the frailejones. Following the footsteps of Simón Bolívar, Pablo Alvarez Mesa travels to the high marshlands to retrace the journey of the liberator. The country’s history and the stories that are inscribed in this Andean landscape tell of 200 soldiers who are buried here. Their spirits nourish its wells.
The poetic essay LA LAGUNA DEL SOLDADO is an exploration of Colombia’s colonial past and present that traces the ghosts that haunt this historically contested and ecologically relevant region.
Director: Pablo Álvarez Mesa
Camera: Pablo Álvarez Mesa
Editing: Pablo Álvarez Mesa
Sound, Production Assistant: Erin Elizabeth Ryan
Sound Editing: Alex Lane, Pablo Álvarez Mesa
Sound Mixing: Alex Lane, Stefan Schneider
Production:Pablo Álvarez Mesa
AWARDS & SCREENINGS (SELECTION)
Cinema du reel – SECAM Award
Hot Docs – Best Canadian Feature FIlm
DOXA – Colin Lowe Best Director
Pesaro – Jury Mention
Cinemancia – Best Director
Mimesis – Best Feature Documentary
FicCali – Best Colombian Film
Cinema du reel
FICCI
Open City
RIDMHot Docs
DokuFest
DOXA
Prismatic Ground
Documenta Madrid
Sydney IFF
FICUNAM
Pesaro
Ecra IFF
Mimesis,
VLAFF
Cinemancia
Biarritz
Majordocs
Buffalo IFF
Bergen IFF
Science New Wave NYC
FestiFreak
Camara Lucida
FicCali
RIDM
BIOGRAPHY
Pablo Alvarez-Mesa‘s films have played at international film festivals including Berlinale, IFFR, MoMA Doc Fortnight, Visions du Réel, and RIDM. His most recent film, Bicentenario, explores Simón Bolívar’s battles of Independence, and was played at the 2021 Berlinale, MoMA Doc Fortnight and Viennale, among other festivals. It earned a Jury Mention at Festival Punto de Vista in the Main Competition. Pablo is also a cinematographer and editor and is currently
editing with Sofia Bohdanowicz her new feature film Opus 28.
Pablo is currently in post production of his upcoming film The Soldier’s Lagoon which was recently awarded with The Docs in Orbit Invitation Award at the Docs in Progress showcase at Cannes. Pablo’s interest in documentary lies in the relationship between facts and fiction; between what is recalled and what is inevitably constructed. His films touch in one way or another, issues of displacement, history and collective memory
