Mexico / Brazil,
2005, 114 min
Shown in 2006
CREDITS
- dir
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Carlos Bolado
- prod
-
Sara Silveira, Yissel Ibarra, Carlos Bolado
- scr
-
Carlos Bolado, Diane Weipert
- cam
-
Federico Barbabosa
- editor
-
Carlos Bolado, Manuela Dias
- cast
-
Diego Luna, Alice Braga, Cecilia Suárez, José María Yazpik, Renata Zhaneta, Damián Alcazar
- source
-
Sincronia Films, 695 35th Avenue #301, San Francisco, CA 94121. EMAIL: castillomark@yahoo.com.
-
COMMENTS
Carlos Bolado, Alice Braga, Diane Weipert in attendance.
OTHER
Road movie, love story and spiritual odyssey, Carlos Bolado’s richly atmospheric Sólo Dios Sabe follows the relationship of Mexican journalist Damián, played by Diego Luna (Y Tu Mamá También), and Brazilian student Dolores, played by the luminous Alice Braga (City of God and Lower City, SFIFF 2006). A Tijuana nightclub and a lost passport bring the couple together, and as they travel through the Mexican desert to Mexico City, their sexual attraction is palpable. But Damián begins to believe that there’s more to it, that fate has brought them together. When Dolores returns to Brazil, Damián follows, and their relationship takes another turn. The film begins with a dream, and, as their destinies unfold, the lovers explore the dreams, mysteries and religious rituals that are so much a part of both Mexican and Brazilian cultures. As he did in his first feature, the award-winning Under California: The Limit of Time (SFIFF 1999), Bolado uses the road trip as a metaphor for spiritual transformation and demonstrates a vivid sense of the natural world. Bolado was an editor of such films as Amores Perros (2000) and Like Water for Chocolate (1992), and serves once again in that capacity here. His editing rhythms are as accurate as his director’s eye. As for Luna’s and Braga’s performances, Damián explains it best: “We have chemistry.” With music by Brazilian sensation Otto and Mexican alternative rocker Julieta Venegas, Sólo Dios Sabe is a voyage of discovery that is sensual, exhilarating and metaphysical.
—Margarita Landazuri
FACTOID #99
Philadelphia-born, British-raised director Richard Lester, who shot the trippy Petulia in San Francisco during the 1967 Summer of Love, directed our Opening Night film and attended the Festival two years in a row, accompanying 1966’s A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Forum and 1967’s How I Won the War.
