The fall of the house of Wilson
Bolivian film SOUTH DISTRICT goes inside a family house to explore what's outside of it.
SOUTH DISTRICT
The house is often perceived as a space in which reality can be outgrown, and where political and social transformations are filtered by the daily routine of the family members. SOUTH DISTRICT (Zona Sur, Bolivia), Juan Carlos Valdivia's third feature film, makes this filtering the topic of its story, posing questions that are central to Bolivian contemporary society, reflecting upon social inequality, racism and the intergenerational struggle of moral and ideological values.
The plot centers around the house of a wealthy family in La Paz. Carola, the mother, is a successful businesswoman who devoted her family environment to the control of her three children; Patricio, the eldest son, is a college student in sexual frenzy and the recipient of all of the comforts and luxuries accrued by the mother; The teenager Bernarda rebels against her mother's moral values and seeks her own sexual identity; Andres is the youngest son, innocently observer of the events. The patriarchal role is vacant but temporarily held by Wilson the butler, who completes the variegated family picture. These characters will move amidst a complicated network of relationships, disrupting traditional roles and building up the dramatic tension before the eyes of the viewer.
The single element that defines SOUTH DISTRICT is the balance between visual and narrative language. The construction of the narrative, based on the repetitive use of travelling shots, easily accommodates the grasp of the plot's contemplative atmosphere. The personal discourse of the film is evidently shown through a collective loneliness of characters framed by the camera while looking outside the house, each absorbed in their own thoughts. When Wilson chooses his own family dimension, returning to his home town for his son's funeral against Carola's will, SOUTH DISTRICT reaches its peak while music engulfs the scene in visual poetry, symbolically assessing the importance of Wilson's social condition – an indigenous Bolivian living in a modern country, claiming his place in the social occurrences.
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