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part of
double bill #2
Under the Sun
Lo que no se dice bajo el sol
Ana’s life changes radically when she divorces at the age of 40. In front of her family, it gets harder every day to keep pretending everything is fine. She decides to make the best of it and to retake control of her life: a new haircut and starting to drive the car again. Yet everyone in her family seems to question her ability to do so—and what is worse: they might be right.
Bio Eduardo Esquivel
Eduardo Esquivel (Mexico, 1989) is a filmmaker who has produced films supported by the Tribeca Film Institute, Mexican Institute of Cinematography (IMCINE), and Inside Out Toronto, among others. His work has been shown at festivals such as Festival du nouveau cinéma, Sheffield Doc/Fest, and Semaine de la Critique Morelia. His short film Lo que no se dice bajo el sol won the Prix Revélation at Cinélatino Rencontres de Toulouse. Esquivel is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents. His feature film debut, Las flores de la noche, premiered at IDFA in 2022.
As the original title, Lo que no se dice bajo el sol, reveals, not much is said out loud in Eduardo Esquivel’s short film. However, the filmmaker’s attention to detail in this seemingly loose narrative conveys many subtle truths through looks and silences, all rendered in an essentially neo-realistic cinematographic style. Its tender frankness works in more ways than one. When Ana is taking her kids to spend an afternoon at grandma’s on a seemingly normal day, her actions play out as an ordeal within the quest to revalue herself as an independent woman while facing the cruelties of her closest family members. Amidst a chatty background and a heart-wrenching soundtrack, many things are left unsaid. Under the Sun pays tribute, quite literally, to Lucrecia Martel’s La ciénaga and to other sun-drenched Latin American cinema. How Esquivel’s cinematic style wonderfully captures Ana’s sad summer day is a great example of how cinema can elevate the human condition.
Credits
Script
Andrea Santiago, Eduardo Esquivel
Cast
Martha Claudia Moreno
Camera
Andrea Santiago
Editor
Omar Robles
Sound
Juan A. Amezquita, Odín Acosta
Producer
Daniel Hernández Delgadillo, Eduardo Esquivel, Karen Kimpleton