Jean Gentil
JEAN GENTIL
Dominican Republic, Mexico, Germany, 2010, 84'
directed by Laura A. Guzmán, Israel Cárdenas
screenplay Laura A. Guzmán, Israel Cárdenas
cinematography Laura A. Guzmán, Israel Cárdenas
sound Alejandro de Icaza
editing Israel Cárdenas
cast Jean Remy Genty, Yanmarco King Encarnación, Paul Henri Presumé, Nadal Walcott, Lys Ambroise
producer Pablo Cruz, Bärbel Mauch, Israel Cárdenas, Laura A. Guzmán
production Aurora Dominicana, T +1 809 5677677, E produccion@auroradominicana.com
world sales Aurora Dominicana, T +1 809 5677677, E produccion@auroradominicana.com
The deeply moving journey of a French teacher who searches for places where life is better. The journey takes him from Haiti to the Dominican Republic, from the urban hustle and bustle to the wild jungle, where he discovers that there might
just be no such place for him.
“I don't live here, I just watch others live … I see people laugh, and I can't understand them,” says Jean Gentil, the Haitian professor of French who wanders around the Dominican Republic trying to find his place beneath the sun. The Mexican-Dominican directors followed him on this mainly spiritual way, and created a touching film which – due to its almost neorealist approach - hovers between fiction and documentary, thereby producing a poetic-meditative Odyssey.
Our projects have always been based on people we know who touch us and somehow make us reflect.”
In their feature length film Cocochi these people were the brothers from the Mexican tribe Raramuri who become lost, then find each other again on their way to a faraway community, whereas in Jean Gentil it is all about the individual who is forever lost.
These unconventional 'travel movies' share a number of other similarities. A patient use of the camera, with long landscape scenes, helps create an ambient framework that captures the impulses of the spiritual transformation of the characters. The extraordinary sensitivity towards the direction of non-professional actors and respect for a stranger's story can be perceived through the actual use of the camera, which always approaches the characters gently and slowly. On the other hand, the elliptical narrative that is characterised by a minimal use of dialogue, allows various interpretations as well as a universalization of Jean's experience, withdrawn from the actual circumstances.
In addition to breath-taking landscape images, the ingenious use of chiaroscuro and the focusing on dark images helps the camera depict the mind of a man at the verge of existential breakdown. A number of subjective scenes manifest Jean's desperation, whilst observing the cheerful environment, whereas the use of reverse shots creates an environment that, at times, intrusively looks back.
The play of looks adds to a claustrophobic sensation of anxiety, similar to the disgust experienced by characters from Sartre novels upon achieving their own freedom and collision with the limitations of the external world. The few verbal sequences, on Jean's lamentations to God, testify to his profound pain and transform him into a contemporary Job.
“We chose to take the idea of a journey from the city to the countryside in the search for a place to belong to, a place where you could be heard.” (Laura A. Guzmán, Israel Cárdenas)
Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas Ramírez
Following their marriage, the Dominican directress and the Mexican director not only share their life but also their work and creative endeavours. Under the auspices of Aurora Dominicana productions that has been managed by them since its establishment, they have both participated in the screenwriting, direction, photography and production of three films: Cohochi (2007), presented last year at Kino Otok, Jean Gentil (2010), which is coming to Izola this year, and the documentary Carmita which is currently in postproduction.
Schedule:
- Thursday, 9. 6., 10.00, ART KINO ODEON
- Thursday, 9. 6., 21.00, Open-Air Cinema MANZIOLI
- Friday, 10. 6., 19.00, KINODVOR (Ljubljana)
