Based on true events, and expertly using non-professional actors to recount their own lived experiences, Mary Jiménez and Bénédicte Liénard have crafted a moving yet disturbing voyage into the Peruvian Amazon, where the persecution of queer people has gone unchallenged for decades. Fugue is in the Competition Strand at the Edinburgh Film Festival 2024.
An understated yet devastating combination of personal recollections, interwoven with a journey as the driver of the narrative, brings to the forefront atrocities committed by Peru’s Shining Path terrorist group.
Fugue opens with the information that between 1980 and 2000, “Peru experienced an internal conflict between the state and two armed groups: Shining Path and Revolutionary Movement Tupac Amaru (MRTA). The consequences of this conflict are well known: more than 69,000 dead and 15,000 missing among the civilian and rural population.” But the acts of homophobia committed have been silenced. Fugue gives some of the survivors an opportunity to tell their stories.
The young person at the centre of Fugue’s narrative is Saor (played by queer artist Saor Sax), who is bringing the body of a loved one back to the family village for burial.
Saor knows the person as Valentina (Valentina Linares Gonzalez), their lover and a queer cabaret singer in a town quite some distance from the home village. Family and friends, however, know the deceased as Pol, their son, brother, friend. As Saor encounters the villagers, a picture emerges of violence and terror which has shattered the lives of LGBTQ+ people in the region over the decades.
Saor barely has a word of on-screen dialogue, but we hear their thoughts through an occasional voice-over as they deal internally with the grief of losing their loved one. During the period of mourning in the village, Saor listens as gay men recount their experiences quietly, each story revealing a little more about Valentina’s past and her death.
Directors Mary Jiménez and Bénédicte Liénard spent a long time building relationships with the non-professional cast, and skilfully created a narrative that allows them to tell their story to Saor freely and in a manner that is unscripted and authentic. Knowing that these are true lived experiences leaves a lasting impression, much more so than if professional actors had been used to speak their words.
The slow, gentle pace belies real trauma and grief, and deserves its spot in competition.
Fugue is in the Competition Strand at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2024.
Based on true events, and expertly using non-professional actors to recount their own lived experiences, Mary Jiménez and Bénédicte Liénard have crafted a moving yet disturbing voyage into the Peruvian Amazon, where the persecution of queer people has gone unchallenged for decades. Fugue is in the Competition Strand at the Edinburgh Film Festival 2024.
An understated yet devastating combination of personal recollections, interwoven with a journey as the driver of the narrative, brings to the forefront atrocities committed by Peru’s Shining Path terrorist group.
Fugue opens with the information that between 1980 and 2000, “Peru experienced an internal conflict between the state and two armed groups: Shining Path and Revolutionary Movement Tupac Amaru (MRTA). The consequences of this conflict are well known: more than 69,000 dead and 15,000 missing among the civilian and rural population.” But the acts of homophobia committed have been silenced. Fugue gives some of the survivors an opportunity to tell their stories.
The young person at the centre of Fugue’s narrative is Saor (played by queer artist Saor Sax), who is bringing the body of a loved one back to the family village for burial.
Saor knows the person as Valentina (Valentina Linares Gonzalez), their lover and a queer cabaret singer in a town quite some distance from the home village. Family and friends, however, know the deceased as Pol, their son, brother, friend. As Saor encounters the villagers, a picture emerges of violence and terror which has shattered the lives of LGBTQ+ people in the region over the decades.
Saor barely has a word of on-screen dialogue, but we hear their thoughts through an occasional voice-over as they deal internally with the grief of losing their loved one. During the period of mourning in the village, Saor listens as gay men recount their experiences quietly, each story revealing a little more about Valentina’s past and her death.
Directors Mary Jiménez and Bénédicte Liénard spent a long time building relationships with the non-professional cast, and skilfully created a narrative that allows them to tell their story to Saor freely and in a manner that is unscripted and authentic. Knowing that these are true lived experiences leaves a lasting impression, much more so than if professional actors had been used to speak their words.
The slow, gentle pace belies real trauma and grief, and deserves its spot in competition.
Fugue is in the Competition Strand at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2024.
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