EL INVIERNO

THE WINTER

By Emiliano TORRES

AJIMOLIDO FILMS SRL - as PROD

Thriller - Completed 2015

After years of working on an ‘estancia’ (an Argentine rural property) in Patagonia, the Old Foreman is forced to retire and a younger man takes his place. The change is difficult and challenging for both men. Each one must survive the oncoming winter.

Festivals
& Awards

Ibermedia Program 2012
Film Project Development Course
34th New Latin American Film Festival, Havana, Cuba 2012
Selected for Original Script Award
Oaxaca, Mexico 2013
Selected by INCAA for the Scriptwriting Lab
6th Raymundo Gleyzer contest - INCAA 2013
Winner
35th Festival of new Latin American cinema, Havana, Cuba 2013
Selected and participant for the V Taller de Guión, Sector Industria
Premio Argentores Latinoamérica Cine 2013
Winner for Best Latin American Original Script Award
Guadalajara Film Festival, Ḿexico 2014
X Ibero-American Film Co-production Meeting
INCAA (Argentine National Film Institute) 2014
Winner of First Fiction Feature Film Contest (Opera Prima)
    • Year of production
    • 2015
    • Genres
    • Thriller, Drama, First film
    • Countries
    • ARGENTINA, FRANCE
    • Languages
    • SPANISH, FRENCH
    • Budget
    • 0.6 - 1 M$
    • Duration
    • 93 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Emiliano TORRES
    • Writer(s)
    • Emiliano TORRES
    • Producer(s)
    • Ezequiel BOROVINSKY (WANKA CINE), Alejandro ISRAEL (AJIMOLIDO FILMS SRL)
    • Synopsis
    • Every year when spring arrives, Don Evans (75), the old foreman at an ‘estancia’ (Argentine rural property) in Patagonia, receives a group of temporary labourers who come for the driving and shearing of the sheep.
      It’s the same business every year. The only things that might change are the faces of the men. This year amidst the group is Jara (30), a young man of indigenous features from a distant north-eastern province. The owner of the property intends him to be the old foreman’s assistant and eventually his replacement.
      Evans picks this up. He doesn’t trust Jara and challenges him in every possible way. Jara resists, clinging on to the hope of getting a steady job and being able to move there with his family.
      The season’s work comes to an end, but this time, Evans’s worst fears come true. After a lifetime of dedicated work he is forced to retire from the ‘estancia’ and is replaced by Jara.
      Evans leaves the property and sets off on a long trip across the mountains towards the coast until he gets to a small oil town in the South Atlantic. When he gets there he tries to contact his daughter, reconstruct his life and adapt to the new situation. However the old wounds between them runs too deep and it’s too late. Having to fend for himself, Evans’s health begins to deteriorate and things go from bad to worse.
      Meanwhile, back at the ‘estancia’, Jara is left in charge of the property. The last of the temporary labourers have gone. Now he has to face the challenge of resisting the coming winter.
      Jara adapts as best he can to the loneliness and the harshness of the foreign territory. It all becomes too much for him, the challenge is much tougher than he imagined.
      Finally winter comes and the land is covered in white. The snow and the wind isolate the place completely, and it is no longer a matter of working or living, but of resisting and keeping sane.
      When winter comes round again, Evans, in a final act of desperation, returns to the ‘estancia’ intending to intimidate Jara so that he abandons the place.
      They fight: one in order to come back, the other to stay on. Only one will survive.
      The winter ends, and the landscape recovers its life and colour. The waters of the river are once again in full flow. Jara, as the Old Man did before him, awaits the arrival of the group of temporary labourers by the side of the dirt road.
      Only then will what these men fought for become clear and worth their pains. Or not.
    • Partners & financing
    • WANKA CINE (Argentina)
      AJIMOLIDO FILMS (Argentina)
      CITÉ FILMS (France)
      INCAA (Argentina)
      RTA (Argentina)
      ORANGE (France)
      TRONCO (Argentina)