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One of the year's box-office surprises in Mexico, Francisco Vargas' debut tells the story of Don Plutarco, a gnarled, ancient farmer mysteriously missing a hand, who wages a guerrilla campaign of music for bullets when the army invades his village.
Set in the mid-70s, and filmed in supple (and subtle) shades of black and white, the film depicts Don Plutarco, his son Genaro and grandson Lucio, as a band of travelling Mexican musicians, whose ramblings about the countryside make them ideal couriers for ammunition and other supplies needed by the local guerillas. When their village is taken over by the army, Don Plutarco takes it upon himself to recapture their lost supplies. Unbeknownst to his family, the old man approaches the squad captain, and offers to play his violin if he is allowed to tend his crops afterwards. A deal is struck—Don Plutarco plays and the Captain, who has a taste for music, listens.
After his daily performances, the elderly man smuggles out bullets he's hidden in the fields inside his violin case. As the threat of discovery looms, and the dangerous cat and mouse game unfurls. What will be the outcome in this war between the power of music and the blunt force of violence?
"One of the most amazing Mexican films in many a year...filmmaking in its purest form... [it] moves us with its lyricism and shakes us with its honesty. A film that's moving, urgent and necessary. In The Violin lies the future of Mexican cinema." —Guillermo del Toro
"The old saying that music can soothe the savage beast is both celebrated and challenged in "The Violin," the finely crafted writing-directing debut of Mexican filmmaker Francisco Vargas. Stark but absorbing drama follows an aging musician, beautifully played by Don Angel Tavira, who fiddles his way into the front lines of Mexico's peasant revolts during the 1970s."— Justing Chang, Variety
Francisco Vargas
After studying theatre, at the National Insititute of the Arts, Francisco Vargas studied Communications at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, as well as Dramatic Arts at the Hugo Argüelles workshop. In 1995, he began his studies in directing and cinematography at the University Center of Cinematography Studies. Conejo, his first short film, obtained a solid reputation while touring the international film festival circuit. For some five years, he produced radio shows to help preserve and promote traditional Mexican music. Since 1997, he has worked as a director or director of photography on several commercials, documentaries and short films. In 2004, he made a documentary, Tierra Caliente... Se Mueven Los Que La Mueven, which was soon acclaimed in Mexico and the rest of the world. The Violin, the short film, was selected by the Cannes Film Festival for the Cinéfondation. In 2006, the feature length version of The Violin was selected by the Cannes Film Festival for Official Selection - Un Certain Regard. The Violin is his first feature film.
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