"Candomberos - De dos orillas"

"Candomberos - From two banks". Original title: Idem, Uruguay, 2018, spoken in Spanish. Script, collation and realization: Ernesto Gut. Production: Ana Cutuli. Photography: Gino Ruiz. Franciosco Gut. Music: Afrocandombe, Pedro Conde, Jimmy Santos, Juan "Candamia" Prieto, Ricardo "Gauvivú" Montoro, Jorge Sadi, Pablo Prieto, Sound: Camilo Gutiérrez, Nahuel García. Digital effects: Lucía Casado, Laura Da Rocha, Tatiana Mazú. Performers: Like themselves Jimmy Santos, Juan "Candamia" Prieto, Ricardo "Guavivú" Montoro, Pedro Conde, Artigas Martirena, Fernando "Lobo" Nuñez, among others. Premiere in Argentina: March 28, 2019, without information about the distributor. Genre: Documentary. Duration: 110 minutes, ATP. Three different models of drums are used to form a comparsa. Magically these instruments interact with each other thanks to the precision of the rhythmic pounding of the sticks, and hands on the patches. Those who touch them are mainly Uruguayan blacks who maintain an ancestral tradition brought from Africa. As it was one of the most important ports in South America, Montevideo was a favorable site to bring and transport to the other countries of the region a large number of African slaves. In the beginning, playing the drums was a cry for liberation, now it is an inexhaustible source of joy and neighborhood integration, because more and more citizens are joining this cultural movement without having African roots. This kind of music expands little by little to places far away from where most of the people who practice it concentrate. Ernesto Gut directs a documentary dedicated to discovering the origins and the permanence of the River Plate in a musical style created in the 19th century and that continues to be valid today. The candomber takes the rhythm in the body. It is impossible to learn it unless it arises from the soul. That is what several Uruguayan interviewees say who fled their country after the military assumed power in 1973. Their ancestors were slaves, boys lived in conventillos in Montevideo and, for a long time, reside in La Boca. The ideal habitat for the city so that the candombe and the comparsas maintain their validity and freshness, an art that is transmitted from generation to generation. The director offers the camera and the microphone to the musicians, luthiers and other people who understand the subject so that they tell the story of this musical genre, as well as their own and personal. In this way they take the opportunity to narrate the days of childhood in the streets of the different neighborhoods of Montevideo, with nostalgia and emotion. Not only the director uses the current testimonies, but also has film and photographic archives of the conventillos and Uruguayan carnivals. Most of it in black and white and the rest in color. The movement and the agility of the story come from the filming of the rehearsals and the parades of the comparsas, which act as separators in each section of the interviews, which are the classic "talking heads". But, anyway, the story is excessively long. Concepts and reflections are reiterated that hinder the fluid continuity of the scenes. It remains bogged down in the memories of the participants, whether it is registered in Uruguay or in Argentina. The candombe and the repetitive sounds that the drums emit are a valid justification for those who love this type of music, which is not only that, but also a way of life, decide to go to a movie theater and appreciate what these people they do it with love, passion, and, above all, lungs.