La Soledad is a dilapidated villa located in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of Caracas. It used to be the home of director Jorge Thielen Armand’s great-grandparents, but when the owners passed away fifteen years ago, the property was unofficially inherited by their lifelong maid, Rosina, now 72, who remained to care for the house and raise her grandson, José, now 27, Jorge’s childhood friend. José works as a handyman, dreaming of a better life for his six-year-old daughter Adrializ, amidst Venezuela’s economic crisis. Waiting in long queues for food and the medicine Rosina so desperately needs is part of José’s routine. When he learns that the legal inheritors of the house plan to sell the estate, José struggles to try to find a solution that will keep his family away from the crime-ridden slums. Yet the house holds a secret that could save them all: a treasure that is rumored to be buried in its walls. Set in the beautiful derelict eponymous mansion and played by the real inhabitants, La soledad (The Solitude) poetically depicts Venezuela’s socio-economic crisis through José’s struggle to save his family from homelessness. Co-presented by MUBI.
Remarkably assured.
- Kevin Maher, Times (UK)
Startling as much for its existence as for its merits.
- Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
A hushed haunted house movie... A vital survey of contemporary Venezuela.
- David Jenkins, Little White Lies
Opens up gradually, like a fragrant but potentially poisonous night-blooming flower.
- Leslie Felperin, The Guardian
Inventive and insightful... A quietly compelling item that appears to be part documentary, part realist fiction, with a faint edge of dream-like ghostliness.
- Jonathan Romney, The Guardian
(Available to download after screening date)