Viennale 2023: Q&A Lisandro Alonso (EUREKA)

Описание: Lisandro Alonso, director of EUREKA und Co-Producer Ilse Hughan during the Q&A with Moderation James Lattimer.

EUREKA
Lisandro Alonso | Argentina, Germany, France, Mexico, Portugal 2023 | 146 min

Structured as a triptych, EUREKA observes the lives of the Indigenous populations of the Americas through different lenses and film languages: the classic Western, a more realistic docudrama and the codified poetics of arthouse cinema, creating different moods and intensities across its 146-minute runtime. But the themes of the film and its essential mysteries are the same as those of the rest of Alonso’s filmography: loneliness, miscommunication and broken families. The first and third parts of the film can be read as a play on representation: how cinema has tried to capture the lives of two continents’ Indigenous populations over the decades. The secret of EUREKA lies in the central part, which makes up more than half of its running time (it is a film in itself) and sees Alonso venture into areas and genres unexplored by his previous films. There, in the Pine Ridge reservation, he creates a nightmarish and strangely heartbreaking drama, a low-key detective story that unfolds in a distressing, desolate setting where no one seems to listen to anyone, where empty highways don’t appear to lead anywhere and the only way to escape is through fantasy and dream—through cinema. (Diego Lerer)