 The rot that permeates the Ecuadorian upper classes fuels Porcelain Horse (original Spanish title: Mejor No Hablar de Ciertas Cosas), an exciting and sometimes overreaching debut feature from director Javier Andrade. The story of a pair of spoiled brothers, Paco (Francisco Savinovich) and Luis (Victor Arauz), who steal the eponymous horse from their father, in order to pay off their drug dealer, Lagarto (Andres Crespo) is riveting from start to finish, even as it resolves itself a bit too neatly. Porcelain Horse is a work of tremendous assurance—director Andrade keeps things moving, and never once does the audience lose track of its myriad subplots. Despite the squalor and the bad behavior of the main characters, we never once lose our empathy for any of them, even as they are (literally in one scene) pissing away their birthright. Even Lagarto, the drug peddler, emerges as perhaps the man we most closely relate to. There’s a lot going on in Porcelain Horse, and eventually the director’s need to capture the whole of Ecuadorian life, from the lowest class to the wealthy, to a misguided afterword that connects this whole situation to the chaos of national politics gets out of hand. But if you’re like a lot of festival-goers, you’re looking for that movie that will linger even after all the movies have been seen and put away in your head. Porcelain Horse is a gorgeous film whose people will tail you all day, demanding that their story be remembered. |  MSPIFF Friday, April 4, 9:45pm Friday, April 11, 9:55pm Director: Javier Andrade Producer: María de Los Ángeles Palacios Writer: Javier Andrade Cinematographer: Christopher Teague Editor: Javier Andrade Cast: Victor Arauz, Andrés Crespo, Alejandro Fajardo, Leovanna Orlandini, Francisco Savinovich Runtime: 100m. Genre: Drama Countries: Ecuador Premiere: October 13, 2012 – Warsaw Film Festival |
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