In Artificial Pardises, 50-year-old Salomon spends his days working the land, smoking marijuana and getting drunk at night. One day, he meets young Luisa, who is struggling with a heroin addiction. The two form an unlikely friendship on the beautiful beaches of Mexico. This sounds light-hearted, but it’s really not. It’s not overly depressing, but it’s really close. Director Yulene Olaizola submits her first narrative film to the Tribeca Film Festival with a look at addiction that takes a while to get off the ground, then doesn’t really go anywhere.
First off, I didn’t really see it as a story about Luisa, I thought of it as a story about Salomon. He’s a widower and the film starts with him and it follows mostly from his point of view. He meets Luisa when she’s looking for a light for her cigarette and the two form a friendship as she deals with her addiction to chiva (heroin). I liked how you get a good sense that Salomon is happy. He’s got a very simple life and when he meets Luisa, he welcomes a new friendship and tries to help her in any way he can. I really enjoyed that sense of helping people without thought of what you get back.
One thing that I had a problem with was how the film never explains where they are or her story whatsoever. Where are they? It’s too small to be an apartment, so maybe it’s a hotel? Does she live there? Does she work? How long has she been there? I didn’t really understand until closer to the end of the film any of these aspects. Perhaps this is intentional, but I would have liked some sort of backstory. I was spending too much time trying to figure that out and not focusing on the story.
The performances of the main actors, who’s first names are the same as their characters, Luisa Pardo and Salomon Hernandez, were really quite touching and real. Even though they are from different worlds, they understand each other’s addiction and don’t judge one another. They help each other in whatever way they know how.
Although there was rarely a blue sky in the film, the scenery is quite breathtaking. The rolling waves of the ocean, the green forest, the miles of countryside, all of this gives a sense of how even the ugliest of things, such as addiction, can exist in beautiful places. The cinematography by Luisa Tillinger will leave you kinda wanting to be on that beach with them.
It’s not really a film that I would imagine the filmmaker would want you to enjoy, but it does give you a glimpse into a life that you might not have seen before. It could have went much deeper and shown the harsher elements of addiction, but this just scratched the surface. I did like the unlikely friendship and wish that would have been explored more.
Rating: Beautiful, but drawn-out. Don’t watch if you’re sleepy. (3/10)
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