re:mote voices

Title: Duck Season [Temporada De Patos]
Cast: Diego Cataño, Daniel Miranda, Danny Perea, Enrique Arreola
Director: Fernando Eimbcke

Duck Season was one of the films that caught my eye when it played in last year's Edinburgh International Film Festival. Which I'm glad to see has gotten a UK release at last. This Mexican film is the latest hit to come from Latin America - it's opening week over lapping with the Chilean dram Machuca, with which it has some similarities.

Flama (Daniel Miranda) and Moko (Diego Cataño) are two 14-year-old boys, who have the house to themselves one Sunday afternoon. The second Flama's mother is out the door, having handed over pizza money, the X-Box is out and hooked up to the TV and they are guzzling coke by the bottle. However it is not long before they have their first uninvited guest, in the form of Rita (Danny Perea), the 16-year-old girl from next door. She crashes their party so that she can use their cooker to bake a cake. However the game play and cake baking are interrupted by a series of power cuts.

When the boys decide to order their pizza they reckon that the deliveryman is 11 seconds late and therefore owes them a free pizza. Of course the fact that the power is out so he had to come up the stairs instead of using the elevator didn't help. Regardless the deliveryman Ulises (Enrique Arreola) is not a man who is enjoying his job, so he refuses to give in to these two kids and so he refuses to leave until they have paid their bill. And thus they have their second uninvited guest of the day.

From their Duck Season follows the interaction of the four characters, providing a strange kind of road trip, where they all go on a journey together, without leaving the boundaries of the flat. Shot in black and white this drama is a coming of age film, with 3 of the 4 characters in their teens. Even Ulises comes to some life conclusions through the course of the film. The story touches on sex, sexuality, drugs, the joys of having to put up with the rest of your family, and the lack of job satisfaction that some people get out of life. The black and white film is particularly striking, providing a distinctive contrast, which is particularly noticeable with the exterior shots of the grim grey block of flats that the action takes place in. Duck Season is a funny film, a laugh out loud comedy, and the kind of film that is a perfect example of how so much can be done with so little.

The website for the film http://www.temporadadepatos.com is quite a good one. Including a trailer for the film, character studies, a couple of the more outstanding tracks from the soundtrack and even a recipe for cake.