Beautifully shot in elegant black and white, with a heightened sound mix of traditional music and ambient noise and a central performance by Angel Tavira that won a best actor award at Cannes, El Violin is a potent drama following rural musicians who also support the campesina peasant guerilla movement in 1970's Mexico.

SYNOPSIS

Don Plutarco, his son Genaro and his grandson Lucio live a double life: on one hand they are musicians and humble farmers, on the other they also support the campesino guerilla movement's armed efforts against the oppressive government. When themilitary seizes the village, the rebels flee to the sierra hills, forced to leave behind their stock of ammunition.

While the guerillas organize a counter-attack, old Plutarco executes his own plan. He plays up his appearance as a harmless violin player, and makes it back into themilitary-occupied village to try to recuperate the ammunition hidden in his corn field.

His violin playing charms the army captain, who orders Plutarco to come back daily,consequently developing a relationship in which arms and music play a tenuous game ofcat-and-mouse, which ultimately results in painful betrayal.

CAST

MAIN BIOS

ACTOR: Don Angel Tavira (Don Plutarco)

Don Angel Tavira was born in Corralfalso, Guerrero (Mexico) on July 3, 1924. He is the direct descendant of an important line of traditional musicians, beginning with his grandfather, Bartolo Tavira, at the end of the 19th Century.

He started playing the violin at age six and rapidly became an expert in the field. At thirteen, his life changed drastically because of an accident in which he lost his right hand. Despite this, he continued to do what he loves most: playing the violin.

During the course of his life, he has been a farmer, a musician, an elementary and high school teacher, among others. He has also dedicated a large part of his life to thetraining of several generations of musicians, At age sixty, he went to the Conservatoryof Music in Morelia to study score transcription in an effort to save traditional music. To continue his dream, Don Angel was also musical director of the group Hermanos Tavira Band, one of the rare bands concerned with saving and maintaining original traditional music.

Don Angel had his first experience in film with Francisco Vargas in the making of thedocumentary Tierra Caliente…Se Mueven Los Que La Mueven — the story of Don Angel, andhis efforts to preserve the musical heritage of his community, Tierra Caliente,Guerrero.

DIRECTOR: 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 festivalcircuit.

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 as an Official Selection - Un Certain Regard.

The Violin is his first feature film.

INTERVIEW WITH FRANCISCO VARGAS (by Susan King, December 2007)

Can you talk about the inception of the movie? Did you know Angel Tavira and wanted to write a movie for him or were you interested in telling a political story and cast himin the film?

The Violin was born out of a whole life process, nurtured by lucky encounters with magical people, like my two great-grandmothers. One who died at age 115, and inspired the image of the old storyteller, and the other one, a tough, hardened woman who rode horses, smoked cigars and drank alcohol; all this in the middle of the 19th century. That inspired the image of Don Plutarco, tough and tireless. Both these people were very strong in my life, and in the dramatic structure of this film; but also the love for music and Mexican traditions. And all within the context of the reality that’s lived, on a daily basis,by millions of Mexicans and Latin Americans since many decades.

I always wanted to write a script about this hidden Mexican reality. Today, still,these muffled voices must resort to pressure methods as absurd or dangerous as armed prisings to make themselves heard. And it’s not something I’m trying to justify, quite the opposite. However, I present it in the film, since at this very moment, and for very many years, in many Mexican regions the people suffer governmental violence or human rights violations. The alternative voices to the “official democracy” are repressed.

The case of Don Angel is interesting, because I met him a long time after I finished this film’s script, however, once I met him and I found out that he plays the violin with only one hand, I though he was a strong and exceptional human being. He comes from a family of musicians with a tradition that dates back 150 years. And the music in his region, in the state of Guerrero, in his town, is disappearing

He comes from a family of musicians with a tradition that dates back 150 years. And the music in his region, in the state of Guerrero, in his town, is disappearing

After that I decided to start The Violin. And because of the characteristics of this movie--the shoot had to be only 4 weeks, in the mountain, with very cold temperatures, with limited material, a small crew, etc…--I decided it would be good to have an actor as the protagonist, so I asked the casting director to find one. But after 6 months of not finding him, she came back to me and suggested looking among the old musicians that I already knew and with whom I had worked on the documentary. At that moment I said that we could stop the search and I would invite Don Angel to work in the film, although there was a risk because of his lack of experience as an actor. And the greatest surprise for everyone was that he ended up being a great actor, since he is a born artist, all his life devoted to music, and when it was time to shoot we only had to train him and take him to the set. And apart from his great screen presence and charisma, his work is the result of, not only my own work, but the work and support he always had from the wonderful professional actors that were by his side, guiding him and supporting him.Great actors like Dagoberto Gama, Gerardo Taracena or Justo Martinez, who worked as actors and at the same time as teachers.

Had he ever acted before? I heard he was 81? Has he made any other movies since?

Although he’s already an old man, Don Ángel is now devoted to promoting his most recent album in Mexico. And regarding film, they have recently called him to play a small part in another movie. Let’s hope we will soon see him on screen.

Would you talk a bit about the political climate in Mexico during the time the film is set?

When the spectator enters the film, the black and white erases the temporal and spatial limitations. This element, as well as the use of handheld camerawork and the mix of professional and non-professional actors, are the choices with which I try to give the film a documentary-like feel.

Also, since the writing of the script, I worked on it in such a way that all references to any Mexican socio-political event were erased. The set and costume design teams followed that same guideline to construct a reality that refers to both a Mexican and a more general Latin American feel. So that it could be Colombian, Bolivian, Guatemalan, or from any of our Latin American countries that have suffered the same experience of
confrontation between a civil society and its government, and of armed uprisings, since memory serves us.

Sometimes I like to clarify that, actually, The Violin does have a defined space and time period. Only that it is more difficult to point out--one merely needs to grab a world map and put it in front, close one’s eyes, and point at a random spot on it; if you’re not pointing to the sea, then you’ll be pointing at a place where a similar story has taken place since centuries ago, is taking place right now,and, unfortunately, will still take place in the future.

Were you surprised at the international acclaim for the film? I read that the film has won more international awards than any other film in Mexican cinema history.

Yes, it has become the most awarded film, which is something that fills me with pleasure and emotion, because it’s the recognition of the work of everyone that was involved in the film. One can’t forget that a film is not made by a single person, and that’s why we have received awards for the actors, art design, direction, screenplay, cinematography…

And getting awards has given us the opportunity to have this film seen in the most remote places, where otherwise it maybe would never have arrived. They (festivals and awards) are a wonderful window to be able to carry that message further.

And in a certain way it did surprise me, because when one is making a film one is not thinking about the prizes or recognition, or festivals or fame. One is thinking of how to tell a story the best way possible, in the most honest way, and, in Mexico, because of the characteristics of our film industry, when you’re filming you’re thinking about how you will finish the movie.

What are you working on now?

I am finishing the promotion for The Violin, but I’m already working on two other stories. One of them is in the final writing process, and I hope to be able to finish it soon so that I can shoot it next year.

At the same time I continue to produce documentaries. Right now I’m producing one in Southeast Mexico. And a few months ago we co-produced a fiction short that was shot in Mexico with a French company.