Review by Matthew Tsang

Writer/Director Nicolas Pereda's debut film Where are Their Stories? (Donde Estan Sus Historias?) follows a poor young farmer, Vincente, who lives and works on his grandmother's farm. He soon begins a journey through Mexico in search of a way to prevent the sale of his grandmother's land at the hands of his selfish uncle. Along his travels, he stops by a wealthy family's home, where we discover his mother is working as a maid. Their extremely disconnected and strained relationship forms the bulk of the plot in this turtle-paced, pretentious film.

Pereda takes an incredibly minimalist approach which forces the audience to feel the same distanced relationship to the film as Vincente feels with his mother. However, this approach results in too many over-extended travel shots, too little dialogue, and too much reliance on the audience to enjoy feeling miserable for the characters.

By dragging us along on the shaky handheld camera travelling shots where nothing is shown but the backs of the characters walking away, the film succeeds all too well in making us feel like we're involuntarily invading the lives of the characters. And, at the end of it all, we all feel that we've seen so much and understood so little that we should have left a while ago.

Where Are the Stories?
Nicolas Pereda | Mexico/Canada | 2007 | 73min

Fri. Sept. 26 | 9:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre 6
Sat. Oct. 4 | 11:00am | Vancity Theatre