Visitas (2006)

Elements from melodrama, the absurd, tragedy and suspense find themselves in this trilogy to draw a psychological sketch of violence. Through the subtle relationship of three stories and the life situations of their respective protagonists, VISITAS, far from limiting itself to recreate the common places of violence in Latin America, situates us in violence's dark alleyways. Here victim and assailant exchange roles unexpectedly . There are no definite culprits, neither obvious redeemers. The only sure thing is that the act of violence could emerge at any moment, given our inherent capacity to reach both sacredness and cruelty. It is not about violence as an outside experience from which one needs to find protection, but violence as an innermost drive, always threatening to dismantle the precarious balance of our lives. The Three Stories I. La Visita Irene is a woman from the upper classes who has recently divorced. She embodies the social isolation and prejudice of people from her social class. Living in a privileged neighborhood of Bogota, Irene decides to isolate herself from anything that could disturb the stability of her small world. Quite perturbed by the breakup of her marriage, she arrives home one night to find an unfortunate visitor. The troubling presence of a wounded man lying in the kitchen floor of her home provokes in Irene a transformation that leads her from insights about particular traumas in her life to outright cruelty. She will exercise this cruelty relentlessly against the anonymous visitor who has only spoken to ask for help. II. The Other Guest. Fearful of Bogota's reputation as a dangerous city, Vicente Langevic arrives in Bogota from Chile on a business trip, with the intention of leaving the city as soon as possible. However, for reasons outside of his control, he must remain in Bogota for a few more days. It's as if the city had different plans for him. Vicente's stay in Bogota takes him from surprise to surprise. With the aid of the hotel clerk, the waiter and an array of sinister characters, Vicente becomes paranoid. Eventually he will realize that his political aloofness during the military dictatorship amounts to complicity. And the city will make him pay for such complicity in a turn of events that dismantles the very core of his identity. III. The Burial Now the visitors are a family of "desplazados", people who, caught in the cross fire of Colombia's war , flee their homes in the country side and lead homeless lives in Bogotá and other cities in Colombia. The father, Sebastian has disappeared, Claudia, the daughter is sick with a high fever and Alicia, the mother, not knowing what to do and having no place to go, ends up spending cold nights beneath a bridge in the city in the company of other homeless: a hostile man and an old man who babbles prophecies about the city. The only thing Alicia is certain of is that the health of her daughter is getting worse, that her husband has not been seen, and that she is one more homeless in a city that is aloof to her predicament. Eventually her daughter dies. Alicia strives to give her a Christian burial. And here begins the sad itinerary of this contemporary Antigone, who faces stoically the lack of solidarity of the city and its inhabitants.