Contactado (EN)

Contactado

Selection: 

Director: 

Marité Ugas

Country: 

  • Peru
  • Venezuela

Format: 

Feature film

Type: 

Fiction

Film exhibited in Toulouse: 

Pelo Malo, 2013, by Mariana Rondón (Director) and Marité Ugás (Producer)

Outstanding awards:

  • Concha de Oro, San Sebastian Film Festival,
  • Bronze Alexander, Thessaloniki Film Festival,
  • Fipresci, Thessaloniki Film Festival,
  • Silver Astor (Best Director & Script, Best Director & Actress), Torino Film Festival.

Synopsis: 

Our character, surrounded by his followers, stares at the night sky, which is lit up by a perpetual lightning that is repeated every 45 seconds. Our character smiles for the group, crossing his fingers in a peculiar way. Some of them, excited, bow before the  lightning. Our character is a young man who has been “contacted” (meaning that he has peaceful encounters with aliens), with followers of his own, mostly poor people with their need to believe, in a context devoid of any hope. Our contactee keeps them captivated with millennial speeches and resorting to unique natural phenomena, as evidence of interstellar presence. It is moving and hilarious to see how innocently the followers are captivated by his speeches. This contrasts with dogmatic attitude of our contactee, who we will little by little discover as a cynic and a skeptic, who obviously doesn’t believe in what he preaches. Suddenly, little unexplainable events, similar to those he uses to manipulate his followers, will begin to disturb him. Our contactee will begin to lose his self confidence. He becomes paranoid. The unexplainable events of which “he is the only witness” increase, as apocalyptic nightmares. His imagination begins playing tricks on him. He becomes his own worst enemy.

Visual concept: 

The image shows two contrasting geographies: On one hand, a precarious Latin American capital; and on the other, breathtaking scenery. This overwhelming geography is home to rarified natural phenomena (Venezuela), or ancient ruins (Peru), keys to the story that our character will use as evidence of extraterrestrial presence. That is the case with the Catatumbo– a meteorological phenomenon that forms a perpetual and silent lightning over Lake Maracaibo. This superb spaces will be recorded in long shots, which will emphasize how minuscule humans are, easy to surrender before a scam. This, opposite to a mise en scene in the city, with free hand held camera, which follows its unsettled pace.