- Mexico
PARQUE VIA
Synopsis
Beto has been the caretaker of an empty luxury villa in Mexico City for more than ten years. He lives there alone and keeps the house in order until it is sold. His contact with the outside world is limited to visits from the owner, who checks on his work, the occasional prospective buyer, and his weekly hours with Lupe, a prostitute he pays for a little company. Beto left the city outside – loud, teeming and threatening – behind long ago. Then the house is sold, and he has to leave. His former employer tries to find him a new position – but Beto fears that, after all these years in seclusion, he can no longer cope out there. “Parque Vía” (Mexico 2008) by Enrique Rivero tells the story of a man whose home has become his prison.
Rivero observes Beto in long, still shots in the empty rooms; the film runs 86 minutes and gets by with very few words. In Locarno, “Parque Vía” won the Golden Leopard in 2008 – the first Mexican film ever to do so. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2009.
Festival
Shown at the 2009 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.
