Gente De Bien

The opening film of the inaugural Columbian Film Festival in Singapore
A film by director Franco Lolli

The opening scene - mom is packing things in the living room and is carrying baby. Grandparents are in the room with mom. Lead actor, Eric, sits near the door with his dog, Lupe.

Mom and son on crowded public bus with the dog to meet the dad. Mom leaves son and dog in Dad's care.

The dad's place is tiny and messy. Imagine opening the door and that's it. Meet the bed. Dad works as a furniture repairman for Maria Isabel who is this really rich lecturer or teacher with two children.

There is great disparity between the rich and poor. This is evident in the streets outside the dad's place and that of Isabel and her friends.

I sympathise with Isabel as her kindness to both father and son is not repaid. Instead Eric makes things difficult for her e.g. throwing boyish tantrums and showing disobedience by refusing to eat his supper. Dad prefers to work elsewhere rather than at the summer cottage repairing furniture for Isabel's friends.

At the same time I can understand where the dad is coming from. He prefers not to be pitied. The one who gets hurt the most from this separation between parents is the child, Eric. He gets bullied by friends of his age, who call him names in childish ways. A scary thought is how these kids grow up to be adults someday and never outgrow this sort of bullying and power struggle.

Eric prefers home and the dad that he does not like to Isabel's fancy cottage, extravagant meals and Christmas presents.

As part of this growing up process, Eric makes a difficult decision of allowing his dog be put to sleep due to cancer.

This story is real in that there is no happy reunion showing the complexity of human relationships, there is a daily struggle to make ends meet, to fit in (for both father and son), and the facing of death.

There is nothing fancy or stylistic in the storytelling or moving picture which may explain the increase of film goers checking their mobiles constantly, which irritated even the likes of me.

My friend explained the gist of this film well, "It's about every life."