El Castigo (the chatiment)

Isabel Ayguavives, Spain

Fiction, 2006, 17'

A familly. Two boys, their father trying to be autoritive as hit father, their mother, caring and /soumise/. Every evening, the dinner is a ceremony, the father facing the TV, trying to be respected. One evening, the youngest boy doesn't like the dish : liver. « You won't get out from the table before you finish your liver ! ». The chatiment comes, an ordinary one, but this time it is applicated. The childs spend years sitting at the table, his plate of liver in front of him.

From this absurd situation, we have a point of view. This child, to whom nothing happen, who doesn't live, doesn't evolve or change is the witness of all the changes of the familly, forgotten and quiet, assuming his chatiment to the end.

The brother chenges, the mother dies, the father have a new wife with two other girls, the appartement is being remodeled... Years and years of a children life passes, and the liver is hard to end. I was surprised to check the length of the film : som many « story-time » passes, so many events are represented is a very concentrated way. The effetiveness of the narration is absolute. Everything is very fast, but never frustrating : the spectator is catched by the rythme, as a portrait of a time. And both the writing and the work with camera helps to avoid repetitivity of a movie that takes place in a single dinning room.

An Era in shown and, after this movie, you feel like knowing more about a whole generation...