GIGANTE

Uruguay, 2009, 84 minutes, Colour.
Horacio Camandulle, Leonor Svarcas.
Directed by Adrian Biniez.

It would be a bit hard not to warm to this short picture of ordinary and supermarket life in Montevideo.

It would be a bit hard not to like Jara (Horacio Camandulle), the huge but gentle (most of the time) giant of the title.

As with the security monitors his job requires him to watch, the film's camera watches, shifts focus, twists for close-ups and has the capacity for replays.

We follow Jara to work, watch him at work, get to know his home life in some detail, learn his tics and idiosyncrasies, appreciate his capacity for knowledge (from crosswords to computer games to TV info programs), his second job as a bouncer at the Disco Club Molotov. But, most of all, we watch him to do to supermarket cleaner, Julia (Leonor Svarcas) what the director is doing to him, almost stalking: Jara turns his camera on Julia, follows her everywhere, learns her tics and idiosyncrasies, her clumsiness and irritating her boss, her time at an internet cafe, window-shopping, cinema taste (he thinks she has gone to see a love story but, instead, she is enjoying 'Mutant', her day at the beach, where she lives, her internet date.

And, that's it.

Well, no, that's not exactly it. We get to know Jara. We stay interested. We like Jara and Julia and we really hope the shy giant will actually speak to Julia.

Our lives are microcosms – and so this is a rather sweet look at identity, self-image, attraction, love, reserve and shyness and power struggles and unemployment. And hard not to like.

1.A likeable film and characters, a portrait, a Uruguayan microcosm?

2.The town, the streets, the cinema, shops, homes, the beach?

3.The supermarket, the staff rooms, the loading bay, the floors, the cafeteria, the offices? Surveillance?

4.The range of the musical score – and Jara’s tastes?

5.The camera following Jara (stalking him)? Jara and his camera and his following and stalking Julia? The role of surveillance, security, exploiting people spied on, the girl and the voyeurs? Interest?

6.Jara, on the bus, going to work, changing, his fellow worker wanting to spar with him? His job, watching? Eating, going to sleep, doing crosswords? Going home? His clothes? With his sister, nephew? Playing games? Fixing the antenna? Watching the television – and knowing from the television how to do massage?

7.Julia, the cleaning women, the squad, uniforms, their work? Pilfering? Jara seeing them? Julia and her being accident-prone, the boss and his criticism, the focus for Jara, looking at the worker, flirting with Julia? Julia in herself?

8.Jara following Julia, the audience reaction, his seeming to stalk her, yet infatuated and falling in love? His skill in shadowing Julia – and having to buy the knitting magazines? Going out with his nephew? Seeing her at the internet shop, his hovering there, her window shopping, going to see the film, choosing the love story but Julia watching Mutant? Her house, the lipstick and dropping it, Julia at the beach, Jara watching, the ball hitting his nose and its bleeding? Jara not speaking to Julia, buying her the cactus? Searching for her files?

9.The routines at the supermarket, the security hours, the men who did this work, discussions in the cafeteria at table, the kind of talk?

10.The protest, the circulation of the petition, the issue of strike, those being fired?

11.Jara as shy, not speaking to Julia, his confrontation of the woman stealing, Julia and the spilling of the yoghurt, his keeping watch for the boss? His anger, the alarm, the water and his being soaked? His smashing the stalls in the supermarket? Fired?

12.His going to the house, finding out where Julia was, going to the beach – and the long take with the two of them chatting on the beach?

13.The audience liking Jara and Julia? Identifying with them and their hopes?