Living in Peru : your everyday companion

By
Ana Valenzuela
El Comercio

The Peruvian Director shares details of his new movie which will be released in Peru on September 3rd. Ricardo de Montreuil currently is working on a new film in which Ana de la Reguera and Cuba Gooding Jr. star.

With the enthusiasm that pushed him to start rolling the cameras in 2007 in order to make a his film “Máncora” a reality, the Peruvian director Ricardo de Montreuil tells us that his was motivated to include the works of the singer Chabuca Granda and the poet César Vallejo in his movie.


What motivated you to include in “Máncora” poems by César Vallejo and songs by Chabuca Granda?

How is “Máncora” different from your first movie, “La mujer de mi hermano?”

Where else will “Máncora” be released?

How have you felt about the divided criticism that this movie has generated outside of Peru?

How do you feel about the fact that a pirated version of “Máncora” is already on sale in Lima?

What other projects are you involved in now?

Ricardo de Montreuil will come to Lima from Miami to present his film “Máncora” which is protagonized by Jason Day and Elsa Pataky.

Translated by Katrina Heimark

tags : Mancora, peruvian films, Ricardo de Montreuil, foreign films

Add to del.icio.us | |

2 Comments

# Claudia says :
4 September, 2009 [ 07:28 ]

The movie leave us, native peruvians, like incivilized agressive people, whereas white Peruvians appear like partying cool ones. Check this review:

Sundance Review: Mancora
Posted Jan 29th 2008 7:02AM by Eric D. Snider
Filed under: Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Sundance, Theatrical Reviews, Festival Reports, Cinematical Indie


When MTV Latin America honcho Ricardo de Montreuil made his first film, La Mujer de Mi Hermano, I thought (and wrote): Here is a man who ought to be making TV movies for Lifetime or Telemundo. His follow-up, the generic coming-of-age story Máncora, is more of the same -- selfish, gorgeous people having sex and lying to one another while undergoing a bland process of self-discovery.

Were it not for the sex and drugs, Máncora would be a completely forgettable movie. Never underestimate the power of sex and drugs to spice up an otherwise useless picture!

It's set in Peru (de Montreuil's native land), where Santiago (Jason Day) is a club-hopping, heavy-partying 22-year old who is having sex with an anonymous woman in a public restroom when he gets the call that his father has died. Wanting a break from Lima, he decides to take a road trip to the beach town of Máncora, where he can clear his head and do a lot of drugs and have some more sex with strangers -- you know, the usual grieving process. The first stage is denial, the second is anger, the third is cocaine.

Before Santiago can take off, he's visited by his beautiful stepsister Xime (Elsa Pataky) and her new husband Iñigo (Enrique Murciano). They live in New York but have flown to Lima to see Santiago. He has rewarded them for their concern by planning to leave town immediately after their arrival.

Xime is sunny and friendly; Iñigo is impulsive and petulant. Improbably, they accompany Santiago on his trip, and the three of them pick up a hitchhiker along the way named Batú (Phellipe Haagensen), a hippie surfer dude who -- get this -- offers wise philosophical advice in the manner of all hippie surfer dudes in movies.

A romantic triangle develops between Santiago, Xime, and Iñigo. Santiago and Xime are not blood relatives, so their lustfulness is creepy but not entirely taboo. All three of them behave abominably in some way or another; watching them is a bit like watching MTV's "The Real World," where you have only scorn and contempt for the characters but kind of enjoy seeing them act like a-holes anyway.

I said "kind of." The glossy cinematography, paradisiacal setting, and Banana Republic-model cast are fine to look at for a while, but the film has no depth, and the acting is nothing more than serviceable. De Montreuil (working from a screenplay by three newcomers) keeps a languid, listless pace, too, maintaining a moody atmosphere and little else.

Santiago finally realizes that he can't run away from his problems and it's time to grow up, a message that 1) is obvious and 2) is nothing we haven't heard before. Not every film has to be completely unique, of course, but usually it's the interesting characters who add freshness to a familiar theme. These people are just high-cheekboned stick figures. 

# Carola Seminario says :
5 September, 2009 [ 08:43 ]

I like to know where we can purchase this movie? I live in Fort Lauderdale, I grew up not to far from Mancora in a town named PIURA and visit Mancora on Easter Break almost every year from U.S.A and my family and I also have beautiful memories of Mancora and Peru....Not to mention that Trujillo where the actor grew up is not far form PIURA.... 

---