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Silvia
IDFA 2018

Silvia

María Silvia Esteve
Argentina, Chile
2018
103 min
World Premiere
Festival history

Silvia looks dazzling in the old VHS footage of her wedding in the early 1980s—she’s a beautiful woman about to embark on a promising future with a diplomat husband, and a comfortable house to live in. The home videos that follow show more highlights from her life: her first wedding anniversary, her daughters growing up, and the farewell party at the embassy.

Meanwhile, the audio commentary offers a very different reality. The film’s director María Silvia Esteve is the middle one of Silvia’s daughters, and she and her siblings talk about their parents’ gradual descent into a spiral of angry clashes, psychological problems and prescription drugs. By recounting events from their childhood, they try to get a handle on what went wrong in their family. And they wonder why their mother, with whom they had a very close relationship, never managed to improve the situation or leave their father.

Esteve uses VHS footage in an original way, combining it with cut-up quotes, excerpts from her mother’s favorite film, and classical music to construct a poetic family chronicle about memory, powerlessness and keeping up appearances.

Credits
Director
Executive producer
    Gonzalo Moreno
    Gonzalo Moreno
Cinematography
    Carlos Esteve
    Carlos Esteve
Music
    Silvia Zabaljáuregui
    Silvia Zabaljáuregui
Screening copy
    Hana Films
    Hana Films

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