Luisa is 25 years old and fighting a heroin addiction. Having escaped the city she finds herself seeking repose in a fading beach resort that rests on the lush seaside hills of Veracruz, Mexico. Inhabitants and conversations are sparse, but Luisa finds a quiet companionship with 50-year-old local Salomon, an alcoholic widower who spends his days smoking marijuana.
The film’s breathtaking landscape, captured by talented cinematographer Luisa Tillinger, is a slice of serenity, even though the village’s permanent residents grapple with the reality of paradise’s temporal promises. It is an interesting and apt backdrop for this less-than-ordinary love story between two people battling dependency. Director Yulene Olaizola, a rising Mexican directing talent who first gained attention with her award-winning documentary Shakespeare and Victor Hugo’s Intimacies, collaborates with co-screenwriter Fernando del Razo and actress Luisa Pardo to create a rich and sincere narrative debut that subverts the typical addiction tale and highlights the subtle yet powerful performances by Pardo and Salomón Hernández. Tribeca Film Festival
De un manera muy minimalista, este filme se acerca a un espacio natural, un paraíso terrenal que irónicamente no promueve tal significado para sus personajes principales, huéspedes de sus propios conflictos, antes que de estos espacios de descanso. "Paraísos artificiales" es una guía de ruta, una crónica yonki que se inclina más a lo contemplativo que a realizar una trama.
Also: Artificial Paradises, Turn Me On, Dammit!, Philip Kaufman, Cindy Sherman and more.
