OCTUBRE

Peru, 2010, 83 minutes, Colour.
Bruno Odar, Gabriella Velasquez.
Directed by Daniel and Diego Vega.

A brief film and we are plunged straight into it without any background explanation. The film can be called a slice of life in the poorer suburbs of Lima. We stay mostly within this limited world, though there is a visit beyond the neighbourhood and one of those intense Marian processions for Our Lady of Miracles, with band, statues, belted devotees and incense.

We stay almost all the time with an unsmiling middle-aged man, Clemente, who lives alone, visits a local prostitute and lends money, fairly it seems, but always wanting a guarantee. The film is going in this direction when Clemente arrives home one night and fears that he has been robbed. Instead, a baby in a wicker basket has been left in his house. He begins to take care of it and employs a local Marian devotee to care for the baby and his household. She is intense, has her own sexual preoccupations and misinterprets Clemente.

And that’s about it. The value of the film is in the performances, the glimpses of life in Lima and the effect of being placed in the middle of this world and being challenged as to what we think and feel about what we encounter.

1. The title, the lucky month – or not?

2. The Lima background, the small focus, homes and shops, the streets? Musical score?

3. Outside and the procession, its lavish devotion? religious imagery and icons throughout the film?

4. A slice of life? Audience plunged into the middle of things, no explanations?

5. Clemente's story, the egg sandwich, giving out the loans, asking for guarantees, the interest rate? Going to the prostitute? Never smiling? Alone, serious, dealing with the wide range of clients? Their requests? His box in the stove, fearing it stolen? Finding the baby? Going to the police, staying that he saved the baby, caring for it? Sofia and the ring, hiring her, the routines in the house? Trying to find the mother, asking the prostitute, going for the visit? Sofia and the bed incident, the uncertainty, the process? His buying the perfume? The man finally arriving for the baby? Future?

6. Sofia's story, in the procession, the religious fervour, her cooking and selling to the baker shop, the question about the ring? The care for the baby, hired, managing the house, doing the shopping, her own sensuality, the approach to the bed? The candles? Her disappointment, seeing her in the procession?

7. The prostitute and her life, clients, Clemente, giving advice?

8. The background characters, in the shops, the prostitutes, the police?

9. A glimpse of ordinary life in a poor section of Lima?