Filmmaker Paula Hernández returned, with “The Wind That Devastates”, to the genre in which she feels most comfortable and where she obtains her best results: complicated family relationships.
Went back Paula Hernández, one of our best directors, always faithful to its theme, that of difficult family relationships, and always pressing different keys. His previous work was a comedy, “The Siamese Sisters”, about a spinster and her overbearing mother. Now he presents a muted drama, one of those where everything seems to announce a storm, “The wind that sweeps away”based on the short novel by the Entre Ríos writer Almada Jungle.
There are no major changes compared to the novel, but one is especially appreciated: having moved the action from the arid Chaco plain to the friendliest Uruguayan hills. Reverend Pearson moves there in an old car, from town to town like the first disciples. English surname, which gives a certain polish, but only that. He is accompanied by his daughter and his assistant Leni, very effective in his task, although it is clear that she would like to be doing something else. She watches the father’s activity with a mixture of admiration and quiet embarrassment.
An accident on the way forces them to stop at the only mechanical workshop in the area. Gringo Bauer, a practical and disbelieving man, and his son and assistant Tapioca, who, of course, is not called Tapioca, live there with his dogs. When the pastor discovers his true name, a biblical name, the boy will be given an enthusiastic tirade designed to lead him to the Way of Christ. The boy is a pure, gullible soul. The mechanic is a man of few fleas. The storm is approaching, but first the men will have time to confess their pasts, their merits and sins, and the teenagers will also find something in common. The fear of loneliness hovers among the four of them.
To do this, and do it very well, very few elements were enough for Paula Hernández.: a good adaptation with Leonel D’Agostinoa simple and exact setting, the photography of Ivan Gierasinchuk that almost makes the heat and the breeze palpable, and four precise interpreters: the Chilean Alfredo Castrothe Catalan Sergi Lopezeach adding another pearl to their necklace of glorious performances, and the debutantes Almudena Gonzalez and Joaquin Acebo.
Besides, This film is added to the very few that our cinema has dedicated to Protestants: “When they call the roll in heaven”, with Narciso Ibáñez Menta as the philanthropist William Morris (his chapel is still preserved, and Pepe Biondi was one of his faithful), “Lucía”, fiction around the visit of the North American preacher Billy Graham , “Chiche Bombón”, by Fernando Musa, where a young woman finds her place in the Salvation Army, and “Reformadores”, a documentary by Marina Zeising about Lutherans in Argentina, not much else.
“The wind that destroys” (Argentina-Uruguay, 2023); Dir.: Paula Hernández; Int.: Alfredo Castro, Sergi López, Almudena González, Joaquín Acebo.
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.
