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Seeds

Country: Mexico, Language: Spanish, 88 mins

Gay | Drama | 2017

Original Title

Cuernavaca

Director: Alejandro Andrade
Writer: Alejandro Andrade
Producer: Alejandro Andrade

CGiii Comment

Remember the first time you saw that boy [or man] who sent your heart into aflutter? Can you remember...how young were you? What was happening in your life at that point? Were you playing with toys and boys with all the joys of childhood?

Just imagine...when that idyll lies shattered on the ground...next to your dead mother. Life changes completely and irreversibly. There is only one safe space left...your mind, where your your wishes, dreams, thoughts, desires and secrets remain...out of harm's way.

Cuernavaca is Alejandro Andrade's vision of childhood trauma...how naivety can be exploited, how naivety can be a sanctuary...how naivety slowly [and irreversibly] ebbs away.

This film is an understated beauty...unlike [the incredible and similarly themed] We the Animals - Cuernavaca is without the huge, warm swells of emotion...instead, there is an indescribable isolation, simply because this young boy has neither the agency nor the support to deal with the world around...he does what he can, his support do what they need...a new idyll indeed...but, it's not the boys' - this garden of warmth is a little chilly. His refuge remains inside his head.

A difficult complexity to pull off...yet, Alejandro Andrade manages to convey the reveries and fragilities of such a young mind...Emilio Puente, for one so young...gives his character not only a resilience but a dimension that is more unexpected than a surprise...that's what happens when...naivety ebbs away. And, hopefully, in time...the sadness and sorrow and the anger will do too.

A thoughtful, immersive [and challenging] piece of work.

Trailer...

The(ir) Blurb...

Andy's world changes completely when his mother has an accident.
When there is no one to take care of him, the boy is carried to Cuernavaca to his paternal grandmother´s house. While her mother is debating between life and death, the child will face the rejection of his grandmother, the seductive and dangerous world of the son of the gardener and will start the search for his father.

El mundo de Andy cambia totalmente cuando su madre sufre un accidente. Sin nadie que lo pueda cuidar, es llevado a Cuernavaca a la casa de su lejana abuela paterna (la icónica almodovariana Carmen Maura). Mientras su madre se debate entre la vida y la muerte, el niño se enfrentará tanto al rechazo de su abuela, como al mundo seductor y peligroso del hijo del jardinero y al encuentro de su padre.