An Astonishing Theatrical Illustration of The Fair Side of Humanity
ABRAZO
Director: Paola Baldion
Runtime: 16:50
Theme: Immigration, Kindness, Political.
In Abrazo, an illegal immigrant finds her way into the house of an elderly woman who from obvious indications don't take kindly to foreign aliens breaking through the American borders. The immigrant is a desperate and heavily pregnant young Latino girl who must have been on a long walk from her country and just needs a safe and warm place to sleep, the house owner is an old American woman with a sick husband or relative (their relationship isn't made clear in the film) who must have had enough of what she would consider annoying foreigners. For the better part of the film, we see each character playout the sentiments of their existential circumstances.
Multiple subplots were running with the story like a chaotic riot scene being shown on the TV of the host from time to time telling us the story isn't set on a backdrop of sane times. Also, the FBI is after the daughter of the host for her link to a felony. All these give Abrazo the feel of a short cutout from a proper feature film.
What is most striking is that all through the encounter between these two, there remains a language barrier they never got past which leaves them with no option than to connect with each other at the level of emotions humans are proudest of, our ability to be considerate and offer help to a stranger who desperately needs them.
All along, the crucial lesson Baldion is teaching us is that we may disagree in our politics, we may see things differently on a thousand of cultural, religious or social subjects but when it comes down to it nearly all the times, we would be found to unite on the most basic of human emotions of kindness, love, pain, fear and value for life.
On all counts, Abrazo is an outstanding and beautifully made film. There is absolutely no reason not to love it.
We rate this film 9/10.
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Paola Baldion is an actress and filmmaker from Colombia. She grew up in Italy and started performing in the streets of Florence at 4 years old for her parents marionette’s theater. Paola has been working as an actress in both tv and film for the past 20 years and through her film company Dos Almas Films she has directed various short films, a docuseries called For Alma and I Am Migration: a documentary were Paola and her partner Jamie Toll travel across the USA providing free DNA tests to the people they encounter.
Her latest work Abrazo is a short film about
a pregnant Central America woman who has just crossed te USA border illegally. Abrazo is currently being submitted to film festivals.