Territorio

In 1927, French poet Henri Michaux travelled across Ecuador and jotted down his impressions in a diary as he discovered the country’s landscapes and populations. With Territorio, Alexandra Cuesta completed this fragmented account starting from the ocean, across the mountains and into the jungle. In stationary sequence shots, the swaying horizon, shadows and reflections recreate shot/reverse shot effects.Each frame is composed with great subtlety, creating surprises for the viewer to explore while allowing plenty of scope for what happens off camera. The director herself also belongs to this off camera space, which plays an essential part in the film.
Throughout the journey, an unspoken bond forms between the filmmaker and the people who are being filmed or waiting to be filmed. Cuesta, who studied film with James Benning, carefully emphasizes the contract between both sides of the camera. With great mastery, she reveals a sometimes humorous picture of her home country that is both fragmented and visionary. This is a country where relations are essential, whether one looks at the relation between the fragment and the whole, or at the relation that forms between individuals at a single glance. Each sequence is independent and necessarily incomplete, but forms part of a greater whole that draws the viewer in. (CG)