En tu Ausencia (film)

En tu ausencia
En tu ausencia
Year Released:	2008
MPAA Rating (USA):	NR
Director:	Ivan Noel
Starring:	Gonzalo Sánchez Salas Francisco Alfonsin

En tu Ausencia (English: In Your Absence) is Ivan Noël’s first feature movie. Filmed in Spain on a shoestring budget, this film is a visual masterpiece. It was filmed without a script and all but two lines were improvised by the actors. The director would tell the actors where he wanted the scene to go while shooting and later his voice was edited out. Ivan Noel worked with the actors for six months prior to shooting, “to teach them NOT to act but to be themselves in front of a camera and fretting director.” Here is what he had to say about this film: “I don’t want to go much into my artistic intentions in this film, as either they speak for themselves or they don’t exist but I will point out these brief points:

- This is a coming of age film, yet I wanted to avoid like the plague the usual sentimentality so often associated with them, and especially avoid what most directors avoid in their depictions for the sake of political or social correctness. Thus, I refused to shy away from the most intimate aspects of a young teenager: if their sexuality, and often their confused sexuality has real importance, as it tends to, I would include it. Not to manipulate, or for shock value, but because not mentioning it when you deal with that specific age, is like a lie through omission."

Synopsis

Pablo, like many 13-year-old boys, is searching for his identity and for the answers to all of the life questions that plague his idle thoughts. His one and only friend, Julia (two years his senior), is interested in helping him answer those questions. Her feelings for Pablo are readily apparent and seemingly insatiable, but Pablo is looking for something more. As the days of summer progress, Pablo meets an intriguing man named Paco, whose car has broken down just outside of town. What starts as an urge to help Paco with his predicament transforms into a friendship between the two, as Pablo desperately seeks not only the care of the father-figure he lacks, but also some semblance of understanding regarding his dark past. Pablo grows more and more fond of Paco, and starts to replace his cautiousness with trust in the man. That transition, though, is rapidly leading Pablo toward a tragedy for which he couldn’t possibly have prepared.

Film Stills

Gonzalo Sanchez Salas, (born January 1, 1996 in Jerez de la Frontera) is a Spanish child actor.

He was discovered by Ivan Noël, a French movie director, speaking to the public and making jokes in a butcher shop. Invited to study drama at Noël's school he was selected among hundreds of other boys to act in the 2008 movie En tu ausencia. He also played songs that were used in the movie's sound track. Like the other actors that acted in this movie, Gonzalo Sanchez Salas lives in the village where the film was shot.

The movie was selected for exhibition at the 2008 Vancouver International Film Festival and 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival.

External Links

• http://www.noelfilms.com/
• In Your Absence En tu ausencia (IMDb)
• 'En Tu Ausencia' coming of age film, Ivan Noel director's cut. (YouTube)
• NOEL FILMS (YouTube)

Other Films by Ivan Noel

‎