the other son. Although imperfect, the drama touches emotion.
“The Other Son” is a drama without much fanfare about the different mourning processes within a family whose eldest son has fallen into the void in a night of alcohol, drugs and disappointments. “He went to the terrace to continue vomiting and he slipped,” is the explanation of those who do not want to accept suicide. A simple glance discards that illusion, but no one plans to advance too far. “An accident,” closes the police report, and the youngest son takes, among other objects, the dead man’s cell phone. The boy reads the messages, and something seems to chew, slowly. What happens next with whoever was his brother’s girlfriend could be an uncomfortable, absurd surprise, a gentle coup d’effect to draw the viewer’s attention, or something that psychoanalysts have studied a lot and hardly recommend, but it is already mentioned in the Old Testament, although with other purposes.
The greatest mourning is done by the mother, affecting the entire family with bursts of crying, denials, appeals to the afterlife and a young middle-class shaman who does “a little cleaning.” The poor woman even frustrates her youngest son’s trip to France, without explaining well that she needs him by her side. Other things happen, of course, perhaps half-expendable, but that’s life. For debut director Juan Sebastián Quebrada, the film is born from the memory of a family loss, the days that followed, the broken heart, the confusing recovery and the pale light of new dawns. And that is what, in some way, his work conveys, apart from some narrative potholes in the first half.
To note, a good acting level, the voice of the veteran Gabriel Taboada as the older relative, the music of Carlos Quebrada, and the Argentine participation in sound post-production and other tasks. Also, a circumstantial scene, where a professor points out that once the main square of the National University, Bogotá headquarters, was named after Francisco de Paula Santander, warrior of Colombian independence and president of the then Republic of New Granada, but since For years, students have called it Che Plaza, after a mural by Ernesto Guevara that no authority dares to remove.
“The other son” (Colombia-
Argentina-France, 2023). Dir.: JS Quesada. Int.: M. González, J. Nava, I. Almansa.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
