After being screened in more than ten countries and awarded at the most important world festivals, the Paraguayan film Guapo’y will premiere in our country on October 26 in commercial theaters in Asunción.
The protagonist of the film is Celsa Ramírez Rodas, a 73-year-old woman who, with herbs from her jungle patio, continues to heal her body and soul from what she experienced during Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship. She still feels the imprisonment and torture she suffered 45 years ago in the Emboscada concentration camp. In that prison, the shadow of a leafy Guapo’y sheltered her along with her mother, her little son, and her companions. However, her forgetting threatens her healing; that of Celsa and that of a people subjected to an imposed lack of memory.
“Guapo’y” is a co-production of Tekoha Audiovisual (Paraguay), Mita’i Films (Argentina), Algo que se move (Argentina) and Doha Film Institute (Qatar), directed by Sofía Paoli Thorne. The documentary feature film has been accumulating recognition since its world premiere at the 35th edition of the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA), where it obtained a Special Jury Mention as well as at the 26th Malaga Film Festival in Spain, where won a silver biznaga for Best Direction in the Official Documentary section.
Sofía Paoli Thorne’s vision in this work has also achieved the award for Best Film (ex aequo) in the Human Rights Film Competition, within the 41st International Film Festival of Uruguay.
Recently the film received the Jury Prize and the Critics Prize in Brazil at the 17BH International Film Festival of Belo Horizonte, Brazil. In addition, it is currently a candidate for the Paraguayan Film Academy for the prestigious GOYA awards in Spain, in the Best Ibero-American Film category.
The film was produced with the support of the National Secretariat of Culture (SNC), National Fund for Culture and the Arts (Fondec, Paraguay), Ibermedia, Doha Film Institute and the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA, Argentina) . . . .
The story that touches us
Celsa’s story comes into the hands of Sofía Paoli Thorne from a newspaper clipping called “Lullabies in Stroessner’s dungeons”; a report by Jorge González for the newspaper E’A, about children born in prison in Paraguay during the dictatorship.
The director of the film highlighted that Guapo’y is, for her, confirmation that stories find us. «Celsa, with her kindness and simplicity, teaches me the importance of fighting together. She also believes that healing cannot be carried out without encountering oneself; with images and memories of her. With the pain points,” she stated.
For Sofía, the transit of Celsa is the need of the Paraguayan people; the need not to forget and not allow forgetfulness to be promulgated by the current leaders who claim the worst years in the history of a country, years of terror and silence. “«Guapo’y» is an urgent story of a suffering body that needs to heal,” says the director.
DATASHEET
Testimonials: Celsa Ramirez Rodas, Ma. Lina Rodas, Derlis Villagra Original title: Guapo’y
Directed by: Sofia Paoli Thorne
Producers: Tekoha Audiovisual, Mita’i Films, Something That Moves Producers: Sofia Paoli Thorne, Gabriela Cueto, Federico Pozzi and Nadia Martinez
Year: 2022
Duration: 72 min. Genre: Documentary
Countries: Paraguay / Argentina / Qatar