La libertad

Pure, minimalist film in documentary style by the talented Alonso. A day in the life of a simple Argentine woodcutter on the pampas.

Simplicity is the most important characteristic of Lisandro Alonso’s disarming feature début, filming a day in the life of the young Argentine woodcutter Misael.Alonso: ‘I often saw Misael in the pampas and I thought that his isolated way of life in the country reflected the way a person feels in the city. Misael is not a professional actor, he doesn’t know what an actor is and has never been to the movies. He is a woodcutter who decided to work a bit as an actor in Freedom. To write the screenplay, I observed Misael’s life and marked the different moments of his daily routines. Writing the script was structuring the way Misael organized his day. (…) I chose not to show the extraordinary or spectacular things that happen every two, three or five years in one’s life, such as having a child, a serious accident or having something unexpected happen. One lives half of his life in a routine that no one notices. I wanted to record those minimal moments so that, upon seeing them, one may rethink what one is doing with his own life. The film does not attempt to simply reflect Misael’s experiences, but rather relate his life with other experiences those of the spectators and mine, because I am someone who leads a completely different life in the city. Nevertheless, if I had filmed a day in my life, it would have been the same as Freedom.’ –IFFR