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THE SON OF THE WAR

EL HIJO DE LA GUERRA

By Julieta LEDESMA

Drama - Completed 2016

The film studies the desire between a father and his son. The driving force behind this plot is this desire, and its need to be satisfied. The form of the film is, perhaps, the form of a dream, in which the logic of the events lead to a kind of story that resembles the pattern of the unconscious.

- Year of production
- 2016
- Genres
- Drama
- Countries
- ARGENTINA, URUGUAY
- Languages
- SPANISH
- Budget
- 0.6 - 1 M$
- Duration
- 105 mn
- Director(s)
- Julieta LEDESMA
- Writer(s)
- Julieta LEDESMA
- Cast
- Osmar NUÑEZ, Mirella PASCUAL, María Ines SANCERNI, Pablo RÍOS, Jorge ROMÁN
- Producer(s)
- Gaston ROTHSCHILD (Sudestada), Ignacio REY (Sudestada), Javier PALLEIRO (Seacuatico)
- Synopsis
- SANTIAGO (20), beautiful and delicate, and a fugitive from his family, lives in the suburbs of a nearby town.
  ERNESTO (54), SANTIAGO’s father, who owns a ranch in a neighboring countryside, discovers the whereabouts of his child and every now and then goes to where he lives to observe him in silence.
  One evening, SANTIAGO discovers ERNESTO watching him from afar and goes out to meet him. ERNESTO flees.
  That night in the rural cemetery where the young man works as a prostitute for a living, SANTIAGO is picked up by a hearse's driver. After the meeting, he wakes up naked and beaten in the desert. He gets up, very dazed, and returns to his father's house.
  At night, ERNESTO eats with CARMEN (50), SANTIAGO’s mother and of fragile mental health, and TESIE (35), the housekeeper, in the kitchen of their ranch house.
  SANTIAGO unexpectedly returns to his father's house. His presence alerts the dogs who begin to bark. ERNESTO takes a shotgun and releases ARÓN, an intimidating black dog, who runs off barking and is lost in the darkness. Soon ARÓN’s barking stops and from out of the shadows SANTIAGO appears, still beaten and seminaked, with ARON at his side. ERNESTO cocks his weapon, ready to shoot at his son, but ARON growls at him and puts himself into an attacking position. ERNESTO backs off, and after making clear to his son that he is not welcome, he accompanies him to the house. SANTIAGO is reunited with his mother, but she does not recognize him and treats him like an impostor, claiming that her son is away at war. ARON, the family dog, begins to disobey ERNESTO and attacks the animals. ERNESTO decides to slaughter ARÓN. Santiago begins to harass his father. ERNESTO isn’t capable of understanding what is happening within himself. This disturbs him. But the young man, determined to liberate himself, brings the situation to its final end. ARON, the killed dog, rises from the graves and his ghostly reappearances threaten ERNESTO’s livestock.
  ERNESTO decides to explore the mountain wilderness to hunt down ARON’s ghost. SANTIAGO decides to accompany him. Both dress and arm themselves to go to battle. CARMEN, seeing her son dressed for the hunt, confuses him for a soldier and recognizes him as her son. Across dry scrubland and marshy ground, father and son follow the shadow of the beast that hides in the brush. SANTIAGO loses sight of his father. The savage animal is stalking them.
  ARON corners ERNESTO. When this happens, he shoots. The animal lies dying, and ERNESTO begins to beat it with the butt of his shotgun until exhausted. After the last blow, ERNESTO discovers SANTIAGO in place of the dog, dying and wounded. ERNESTO, desperate, throws himself onto his son, who dies in his arms. A torrential rain pours down on the ranch.
- Partners & financing
- IBERMEDIA
  Crédito INCAA
  Aportes de Sudestada Cine
  Aportes de Seacuatico
  Subsidio de la Provincia de Santiago del Estero
  Aportaciones privadas
- Production schedule
- Preproducción April , May 2015
  Rodaje June, September 2015
  Postproducción October - December 2015
  Premiere 2016
- Beginning of shooting
- Jun 01, 2015
- End of shooting
- Sep 30, 2015