MELODIAS
by François Bovy
70 min. / documentary / 2005
Set in Columbia, the film tells the stories of Dario, the taxi driver; of Jorge, who unloads trucks; of the policeman Edwin; and of Luis Carlo, who looks after the injured and brings the dead to the morgue. One of the three is a former evangelist-cum-hit man who expands on the worth of bullets and of the life of a man. The second speaks of the heat that blood gives off, and how his mother consoled him in the face of the murdered bodies of his brother and father. And the last of the trio explains “it is not a sin…to shoot someone in the ear”… At once over the top and tragic, sad and funny, their stories touch upon the very limits of beauty and horror, good and evil. “Reality is to live and die” the two musicians accompanying the film sing, inviting us to make the most of life since all is but a dream.
AWARDS
– Nominated for European Academy Awards Documentary 2005
– Festival Visions du Réel 2005: TSR award – best Swiss movie, “Regard sur le crime” award
– Festival Filmmaker Milan : 2nd Fnac award
– Punto de Vista, Navarra IDFF, Pamplona : 1st award for the best movie, 1st award for the best director
FESTIVALS
– Festival Visions du Réel 2005
– Hot Doc’s Toronto, international competition
– Mostra de Sao Paulo, international competition
– Festival Filmmaker Milan
– Shadow Festival, Amsterdam
– RIDM, Rencontres internationales de Montréal
– Punto de Vista, Navarra IDFF, Pamplona
– Amakula Kampala International Film Festival, Uganda
– Oslo International Dokumentar Festival
– Festival de Lassale, France
FILM CREW
Written and directed by : François Bovy
DOP : François Bovy
Sound : Juan Guillermo Palacio
Editing : Damiàn Alejandro Plandolit, Stéphanie Perrin
Sound design : Étienne Curchod
Musical Arrangement : José Guillermo Patiño Herrera
Production : Nadejda Magnenat, Les films de la dernière heure
In coproduction with RTS Radio Télévision Suisse, documentary unit.
With the financial support of the Federal Office of Culture, the Fondation vaudoise pour le cinéma, the Fonds Regio films.
Cinema distribution : Moa Distribution