The Aerial ‘La Antena’ (Estenban Sapir, 2007): Argentina

The Aerial(La Antena) Argentinian director Estenban Sapir creates a world of imagery through a city without a voice. The human voice is suppressed through a dictator named, Mr. T.V. The black and white cinematography gives this film a dramatic effect that draws the audience into a three-dimensional silent autocratic world that replays the actions taken in WWII. The Mise-en-scene provides mysterious dark angel speaking characters that live very peacefully amongst the silent city. The windows of words are projected in a futuristic manner that are held against the mouths of over-ruling giants that crush the souls of the weak and the innocent.The tilt shots in the first act are so brilliantly used. This film by far, out of all the films from the film festival, is still the one movie that I can’t get out my head.

This film has won Best Director and Best original music and has featured in the Rotterdam Film festival as well as the Fantasy film festival. Estenban Sapir’s amazing cast gave a stunning performance, especially the two child actors that made this film an eye-opener. The child story opens with two hands opposite and adjacent from one another, mimicking typing. A deep focus shot of a huge typewriter then appears with typewriter levers with a straight-on angle. I thought it was very artistically done and had never seen such a creative opening scene. Numbers begin to become significant in the first act that create mystery until you see what the city watches on television as well as eats. Captions of Spanish sentences become repetitive throughout the film in a whimsical way. The editing was truly breath-taking thanks to Pablo Barbieri Carera. The music score had been done by Leo Sujatovich which really made the film a masterpiece with classical music that gave it a 1920’s feel to it. The significant sound effect used was within the sound of the broadcasted spiral that had a warped sound to it.

This film is really far fetched yet original so if you don’t enjoy fantasy films, you shouldn’t see this one. Honestly, I could watch this film over and over again. It’s the type of film where one can find significance between everyday life and what life could have been if we weren’t a democratic nation.