Araya

CP SOUTH AMERICA 2 / SUN. 14 SEP, 15.00 / CINEMA XXI – TIM

18+

Country of production Venezuela
Language Spanish
Subtitle English
90 min, B/W, 1959

Ditemukan pada 1500 oleh para penakluk Spanyol, semenanjung gersang dan terpencil Araya di Utara Venezuela sempat menjadi kawasan penting dan dilindungi karena ladang garamnya, sebuah komoditas yang sangat berharga di Eropa waktu itu. Zaman berubah, tapi kehidupan di Araya tak ikut berubah selama hampir 500 tahun. Segala berpusat pada garam dan lautan. Dengan gambar dan narasi yang sama-sama puitis, Araya mengajak kita melihat rutinitas kehidupan dan kerja keras keluarga para buruh garam dan nelayan. Araya memenangkan Hadiah Kritik Internasional dalam Festival Film Cannes 1959 bersama Hiroshima Mon Amour karya Alain Resnais. Setelah bertahun-tahun hanya beredar terbatas, Araya direstorasi pada 2009 dan dunia kembali menemukan salah satu mahakarya sinema yang sempat lama terkubur.

— Ronny Agustinus

“Discovered” in 1500 by the Spanish conquistador, arid and secluded peninsula of Araya in North Venezuela has become a significant and protected region thanks to its salt fields. At that time, salt was a highly valuable commodity in Europe. Things have changed but life in Araya hasn’t changed much for almost 500 years. Everything is still centered on salt and oceans. Equally poetic in pictures and narratives, Araya invites us to look at the everyday life of fishermen and salt field’s workers. Araya won an International Critics Award at Cannes Film Festival in 1959 together with Alain Resnais’s masterpiece Hiroshima Mon Amour. After years of limited distribution, Araya was restored in 2009 and now the world can discover one of Latin American masterpieces that had been long buried.

— Ronny Agustinus