The Still Side

An abandoned vacation resort, somewhere off the coast of Mexico. Among the concrete remains of a hotel and an amusement park, nature is steadily gaining ground. From invisible speakers, we hear promotional announcements intended to lure visitors to spectacular attractions. Yet there is no one to be seen. The ocean crashes onto the shore and the wind has free rein.

As the camera carefully explores this abandoned settlement, we hear the voices of a young woman and man whose probing conversations deal with topics ranging from the existence of a mysterious sea monster to unfulfilled promises of freedom and progress.

The relationship between text and image is playful. The Still Side is a poetic film that invites the viewer to open up to the beauty of decay. Does this crumbling hotel, built at a time of hopeful and unfettered capitalism, represent the excesses of neoliberalism? Or are we simply seeing the omnipotence of nature?