Montreal director of Colombian origin Pablo Álvarez-Mesa has developed in recent years a unique cinematographic language in Quebec, between the essay and the archive documentary. Both through form and through narration, his films, as sensitive as they are critical, question our relationship to history and colonial violence. The Laguna del Soldado, his latest feature film, presented on Tuesday as a world premiere at the Cinéma du Réel festival in Paris, stands out as his most accomplished in this regard. He also calls for greater interest in this filmmaker who is prolific internationally, but little known here.
Pablo Álvarez-Mesa has indeed distinguished himself at the most prestigious European festivals, from Berlin to Rotterdam. At the same time, he also had a brilliant career as a cinematographer. His collaborations with Ariel Nasr (The Forbidden Reel2019) and Sara Dosa (Fire of Love2022) have enjoyed resounding success. Fire of Love was even nominated for the Oscar for best documentary in 2023 and remained on display in Montreal for almost a year. In all of his recent projects, the artist exploits the materiality of film cinema as well as the juxtaposition of archive images and real shots.
This is how he turns towards the paramo Colombian, in the heights of the Andes, with The Soldado Lake, the second part of a trilogy on the bicentenary of Colombia’s independence. “The region was a strategic crossing point for the army of Simón Bolívar, the emblematic military leader of independence, as well as a sacred place for indigenous peoples and a refuge for modern guerrillas,” explains the director. Without taking a position himself, he gives voice to the inhabitants, who reflect on the consequences of their presence – and that of their ancestors – on the territory.
Fog on celluloid
His images of the region are also covered in thick fog, which Pablo Álvarez-Mesa echoes with the grain of the celluloid. “I wanted to evoke the passage of time and the presence of ghosts. Just because we don’t see things doesn’t mean they aren’t there. So I became interested in the notion of “the obscene”, in every sense of the word. On the one hand, I evoke what is not shown on stage, what we do not see, and on the other hand, I reflect on the obscenity of colonial violence, which is particularly evident in the rural environments, but which is also hidden by fog. »
In Bicentario, the first film in the trilogy, Pablo Álvarez-Mesa mixed his own footage of the country’s independence celebrations with archival footage of violent historical events in Colombia. He observed a gap between the nationalist speeches glorifying Bolívar, propagated by the institutions, and the political violence which was perpetuated in the country, “like a curse”. “In both films, the fog and grain of the film also evoke the policies of the ruling classes, which could be described as nebulous (nebuloso) since they still exclude several populations, such as indigenous people. »
Before finishing the last part of his trilogy, which will focus on an army of inhabitants of paramo that Bolívar put together for his liberation campaign, the filmmaker will fly to Iceland to shoot another documentary with Sara Dosa as director of photography. “I don’t want to stop this type of collaboration, because they guide my own approach. It was by working for others that I perfected my technique, which allows me to highlight the textures and imperfections of images. I find myself very lucky to be able to work on such beautiful projects. »
From direct cinema to Cinema of reality