Milagros Mumenthaler Introduces Her Film "The Idea of a Lake"

Finding inspiration in the true story of a woman whose father disappeared during the civilian-military dictatorship in Argentina.
milagros mumenthaler

MUBI is showing Milagros Mumenthaler's film The Idea of a Lake (2016) in most countries around the world from April 23 - May 23, 2017 in partnership with Locarno Festival in Los Angeles.

The Idea of a Lake

The Idea of a Lake comes from the book by Guadalupe Gaona, Pozo de aire ("Air Pocket"), an autobiographical work that focuses on the absence of her father, who disappeared in March 1976, during the civilian-military dictatorship in Argentina.

In order to respect the book—because of the author, for its subject and due to the effect that it had on me—I knew from the very beginning that the film had to be based in two axes: one, the documented material; and the other one, the memory, where imagination and remembrance mingle and break into the present.

This was the basis of the film and throughout all the process of making it, I tried not to betray that spirit. I figured out a protagonist, Inés, who is trying to finish a photo book of her father during the pregnancy of her first child. What's going on through her mind? The need of giving answers to her future baby moves her to try to find them herself. In that process, her own relationship falters and a strong conflict between mother and daughter about the father's disappearance arises.

I tried not to tell the historical-political facts in order to focus on what the father figure leaves behind and how to live with that absence.

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