Our first two films... "Parque Via" and "Sonbahar"...
A Mexican film centered around the routine life of a manual laborer looking after an empty mansion house located on one of the city’s most illustrious boulevards.
The man, Beto, has lived alone in this house for many years, taking care of it until its matriarchal owner is able to sell it. His life is rigidly focused on his laundry, the upkeep of the house and garden, and the nightly visits of his favorite prostitute.
This, too, is a film of isolation and loneliness. Beto, however, is comfortable with this ordered life and actually becomes ill when forced to leave the confines of the property to visit a cemetery on the Day of the Dead or to go to the market with the female owner.
Encapsulating the structured and ordered existence of a servant, this film pays respect to the life of a manual laborer. However, when the house is finally sold, Beto is confronted with an uncertain future.
A supposed crime is committed that lands Beto in prison, but he has only recreated that which he yearns for, an ordered life of regular meals, a controlled environment, and plenty of television to keep him company.
The man who played Beto (as well as the other actors in the film) is not a professional actor. He was chosen specifically because he is actually a manual laborer in "real" life. This was quite refreshing because it is sometimes painful to watch an educated thespian try to replicate the physical manifestations of someone whose body has been calloused and bent from a life of hard manual labor.
