La Fortaleza

Roque, who is old enough for a midlife crisis, has just wrecked his mother’s car. He blames the chaos in Venezuela, but his parents don’t share this view, and throw him out of their house. To battle his demons, and the drink, he travels into the southern jungle to renovate a cabin he built there in happier times. He meets old friends, now captivated by the gold rush. His desire for redemption conflates with an increasingly violent environment.

By turns lyrical and raw, realistic and intimate, feverish visions also reflect the inner state of the protagonist – who not by chance is played by the filmmaker’s father (who also had a minor role in his debut, La soledad).

The film briefly references the crisis in Venezuela, but Roque’s quest is inspired mainly by the stories Thielen Armand heard from his father about his own battle to give up alcohol. Further mirroring reality, Roque also has a filmmaker son who has emigrated to Canada. On his personal connection to his films, Thielen Armand says: “As an exiled Venezuelan I am invaded by a feeling of loss, a longing for something that is no longer there.”

• 

•