A forbidden love develops between Caviche and a teenage girl named Chelina amidst a deserted land, a kingdom of lost innocence, of old children and of despair. Surprised by an unwanted pregnancy and motivated by the fear of a violent father and a putrefied society, the young couple decides to make an abortion and to fund it they decide to smuggle 50 gasoline tanks in just a day. They undertake a desert journey in a kamikaze car while ignoring how dangerous, mythical and mysterious this Caravan of Death can be. Their decision leads to a journey of unpredictable consequences marked by border authority chases, sand traps and deadly fire, the main antagonist of this story.
Through these audiovisual pieces we want to invite our potential co-producers and investors to get to know the philosophical foundation of the director and writer for realizing these film. We also take the opportunity to contextualize the deserted location where the film will be shot. With these pieces we also look to give faces to the principal and supporting characters with a preliminary casting.
I consider that my primary duty as a filmmaker lies in creating fiction with a gigantic load of reality. Within truth lies beauty, the marvelous thing about film. My “truth” is that the innocence has been lost there are no kids anymore. We are now surrounded by old adults and younger adults.
When I was a kid I had a happy childhood, without absences, without pain, without regret, without cruel questions or premature. Even so, many of my friends had an unhappy childhood, full of death, heat and pain, it forced them to let go of their infancy and innocence becoming little/young adults.
The story of Caviche is loaded with the life of these saddening old kids, matured prematurely by their socioeconomic limits. A big part of these old kids and their realistic philosophy, without hope and bittersweet, is present throughout the story. Boyhood? Childhood? Innocence? What are these things? In “CAVICHE's universe” and in the real one, these words don't exist.
With “CAVICHE” I want to show in the nude, in a crude way, without stylization, decoration or euphemisms, that which is denied, the prohibited, the morally incorrect, what our society looks to hide with vehemence: in Caviche's fiction and in reality, the adolescents lose their virginity at an early age, get pregnant and abort. Without thinking about it. They have no other way.
With Caviche I want to critique the unjust society in which I grew up, where there was judgment and censorship on relationships between 16 year old adolescents and 28 year old men, but ignored the extreme violence from fathers towards their daughters.
A big part of Caviche's story is based on people I have met in the surroundings I grew up. These makes Caviche, more than a work of fiction, it is an anthology of the questions, fears and anecdotes from my past.
I want to tell a story of real, young, innocent love, surrounded by the aridity, heat and hunger that all the characters in this Latin American universe titled “CAVICHE” suffer
I must confess, when I started to write lot of words came to my mind: love, hate, heat, gasoline, sweat, suffering, violence, shouting, burning… Analyzing the common aspects between those words, an image came to me: a huge burning flame. That is “Caviche”'s essence, the fire produced by the highs – and lows – and passion of the human being.
“Caviche” it is not looking to make art just because of the pleasure that is implied, but generating questions about an ambivalent society, based on its reality's foundation, it wants to make the spectator feel disturbed and make him/her judge their own morality and make conclusions about what it really is “morally right” and “morally wrong”.
“Caviche” pursuits the naturalness in every aspect; acting, dialogs, scenarios, conflicts, fears, desires. The film is not after the unbelievable, but the extraordinary within the everyday life of La Guajira Region.
I want that the spectator experiences, while watching “Caviche”, something like witnessing a football match in the desert at noon. I want them to feel the heat, to sweat, to feel thirsty, to feel tired. I want for each element in front of the camera to be up to 100 degrees.
You must be asking yourself how I’m going to achieve that. Next, I’m going to explain how I am going to use my tool to get that feeling. Let’s start with the relation between camera and story. When I imagined “Caviche” for the first time, I immediately thought of a free camera movement, an agile camera, a curious camera, or how they call it in my home town “Bochinchera”(gossip). In my mind, in my script this camera is a camera that does not stop shooting, a camera that rarely will obey the word: “CUT”. Every scene I wrote is meant to be a long take shot. I imagine the camera with personality: always handheld, breathing, vibrating, as if it is another character in the film universe.
The concept of “stylization”, understood as those artistic licenses that a filmmaker takes just because they are making films, is the concept I want to leave behind. I want the camera and light to have a real meaning, totally natural. The sun light will be the main tool on this film.
In terms of color, I am want the result as real as possible, based on my memories when I grew up in La Guajira. I’m looking for a warm dominant tone, and saturated and vivid colors. All of the characters, no matter what, they will have a special treatment on their faces: their eyes will bright in a magnificent way and detail.
The natural realistic treatment also applies for the sound.
I don’t want to manipulate the audience in any way, I want that the audience builds their own environment, to make their own conclusions and feel what they want to feel. I don’t want to force things. I don’t want to judge. I want to make a movie that I would love to see as spectator.
I love cinema, it gives me the chance to think freely. Because of that, “Caviche” will not have non diegetic music. The music that will be played is diegetic, form TV, radio, speakers and more. This music is original for my film, it’s a fusion between African-roots and Colombian accordion both simply synthesized in order to evoke an 80’s sound.
The sound is designed to highlight the presence of a very particular element: The wind, this element it’s not just part of the universe it is also a dramatic resource highly important to the story. The sound of the wind it’s La Guajira itself during the film, it decides, it thinks, it interferes. On top of that it highlights in a more violently way the fantastic and surreal environments like dreams and hallucinations. The wind's sound will be present at every moment.
Another important element during sound design is the sound of every car engine, to the fullest. Each car will have their own sound, their own voice.
When I started writing “Caviche”, just when I had the physical description of each character, when it was just an idea, just a sketch of personality, a scene came to my mind during a dream: A couple taking a swim in a lake. He was 26 and she was 16. He was dusky, skinny, baby-faced, and innocent. She was dusky as well, with a beautiful face just like an indigenous Wayuu princess, bright green eyes, but not innocent at all. While I was watching them on my dream, I learned more from them. He was shy, like he was saving words, really kind of a slow guy, she was analytical , like trying to be shrink, an observer, who does not like to express her love to him. I felt like there was an incredible tenderness between those two. And then I thought: they are the right ones!!!
This dream was the foundation for the kind of relationship I want for them, a foundation for my acting directing process. I imagine restrained acting, a non-effusive relation in their expression. I want to see the drama and power on their eyes, their physical proximity, their non-verbal language. The love between Caviche and Chelina is so restrained that during the entire film they will not show their love, they never kiss, they never say “I love you” to each other. “Caviche” does not need poetical words, sex, not even kisses, to show how real and deep it’s this love.
While shooting the film teaser, I realized the real power that exists in directing non-professional actors. I want to keep it that way for the film. I want Caviche to be performed by a real ex gasoline smuggler, in that way, the actor will have driven at 180 km/h in the middle of the desert just like Caviche. The actor won’t be acting, just being.
On the other hand, the general rhythm of the film is a constant and intense crescendo curve. Each scene was written to start as a day to day situation and step by step, it will take us to an extraordinary point. A climax!
The production design has different concepts such as the anachronism, the fire and the old period: the story is set in 1990, at that time, the gasoline smuggling was on fire between Colombia and Venezuela's border. The interesting factor about La Guajira is that is a region of different eras. Yes, the story is during 1990 but their habitants, their vehicles, their outfits are from different decades. Not a single character will have two outfits that look alike, not a single car will have a repeated color or sound, each hairstyle will be unique. La Guajira is the “poly-chronology” region.
Fire is the fundamental element of “Caviche”, there is always the risk to be burned. Each scene, each shot will have the presence of fire, sweaty characters, a big yellow flame, high temperatures somewhere around. Each character that has had contact with fire will be scarred as evidence of this element. Fire, just like La Guajira, is a metaphorical character during the entire film. It is the judge, it is the executioner, it is not fair, it is lethal.
The old period, will help us to remember that there is no youth, no innocence. Every character, no matter their age or conditions, will have rusty skin and clothing caused by the passing of time, every single element in the film is rusty, old, scratched and broken.
A great motivation to produce this film is the foundation the story has on the reality of Latin American society during the 90's in the desert and the gasoline smuggling in La Guajira peninsula.
Throughout the development of the script, I was a consultant in the birth of CAVICHE, a story that I have been accompanying since the beginning and have been contributing throughout its process.
By having the finished work and ready to be projected, it would signify a sentiment of complete artistic satisfaction, and a great sense of pride and happiness.
A great challenge as a producer will be working with children and adolescents, as this story does fascinatingly. Finding a couple of adolescents who can communicate this reality that we speak of in the script, will be the biggest obstacle in our production.
The risk of this production is also high when it comes to the location where this film will be shot: the Guajira desert or a Latin American desert. With extreme climatic conditions, the mobility within the desert, nourishment and hydration will the foundation for logistics to achieve a good shoot.
Artistically it will be a movie with great commercial output and it will call the attention of action, with a real-life component and Latin American conflict lovers. We are betting on the production being watched by many people all over the world from all ages. It is an action movie, with high verisimilitude. It is a movie that many will be talking about.
I invite our future partners, co-producers and investors to accompany us in this adventure and get together to realize this great cinematographic project.
Sebastian Parra R, was born the 19th of October, 1994. He is a Director and Script-Writer born in the town of Urumita, La Guajira. His professional profile is focused on the departments of direction and script writing for film. In Television, he worked as an Assistant Writer for FOX Telecolombia (2014). Within his cinematographic experience there are stand out projects such as the short-film “Siete Minutos en el Cielo” (2013), where he was Director and Writer. On the long format film “ANTHROPOS” (2015), he was co-director and co-writer. He worked as a Second Assistant Director to Spiros Stathoulopoulos in the second segment “KILLING KAUS KINKI” form the full length “AMAZONAS” (2016). As a Script writer, he wrote the short-film “Hedone” (2017) and he is in the process of writing the script for the short-film “El Escarabajo”. In the present, he is in the production process of his prime project: “CAVICHE” where he is writer and director.
Andres Gomez D. is a Producer, Editor and Film Director and founder of SOLAR CINEMA for 8 years. He worked as First-Assistant Director on the recognized short film at Clermont Ferrand 2017 “KILLINK KLAUS KINSKI” from Spiros Stathoulopoulos, also best Colombian short-film winner in 2017.
In 2017 as a producer he released the movie “EL DIA DE LA CABRA” (BAD LUCKY GOAT) at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. The outlet Indiwire named it their favorite movie of the festival, and up until now the movie has been around 35 international festivals.
In his experimental cinematographic projects, some stand outs are the ngth feature “ANTHROPOS” the first exquisite corpse from Colombian cinema directed by 50 directors from all over Latin America. As a Producer, 1st AD and Editor he created “FUCKING GAMES”, directed by the Greco-Colombian Director Spiros Stathoulopoulos, a respectful answer to “Funny Games” (1998) from Michael Haneke.
In 2018, he worked as Manager of catering and hydration for the film “Triple Frontier” (Netflix).
In October of 2019 he is to release a new movie titled “LUZ” at the SITGES festival in Barcelona.
Currently, he is in postproduction of "CAVEWOMAN" of Spiros Stathoulopoulos as Producer.
In 2023 he plans to make his directorial debut with "SAVANTS".
He is an entrepreneurial cinephile who has worked to create an industry in Colombia with the development of practical cinema workshops, where he has developed experimental projects by uniting young Latin American talents.
Title: Caviche
Language: Spanish - Wayuunaiki
Length: 90 minutes
Production year: 2022
Format: 4K
Final: DCP
Genre: Adolescent Drama
Classification: 18 to 50 years old
Producer www.solarcinema.co