04/09/2021 - VENICE 2021: Argentine director Iván Fund blends magic and realism to recount the unusual grief process embarked upon by a couple who have lost their young son at sea

An immense, deserted beach, lapped by a pristine-looking sea: this is the view enjoyed from the beautiful summer residence belonging to the protagonists of Argentine director Iván Fund’s new film Dusk Stone [+see also:
trailer
interview: Iván Fund
film profile], presented in competition at the 18th Giornate degli Autori in Venice. It’s a suggestive landscape - partially impaired by a cumbersome industrial rig set up just a few metres from the shore - which acts as more than just a simple backdrop in a story exploring pain and mourning, but also love and profound friendship, where the tragic loss of a son intertwines with popular beliefs concerning a mysterious sea creature.

Bruno and Greta (Marcelo Subiotto and Mara Bestelli) are the loving parents of young Denis (Jeremías Kuharo), a sweet and placid child with a passion for a video game revolving around a monster which destroys objects and cities. Local fishermen claim that a strange creature from the deep lurks around the afore-mentioned controversial rig. Intrigued by the legend, Denis ventures onto the beach one night and never returns home. Around a year later, the beach house is up for sale, and Greta calls her closest friend Sina (Maricel Álvarez) to ask her to help pack up the house and take everything away. No sooner has she finished her shift on the perfume counter of a big shopping centre, Sina jumps on a train and heads for the coast.

Greta and Sina are reunited in the house on the edge of the ocean. Denis is no longer there, but his presence is palpable, both in the memories they have of him and in the objects which were his. Bruno, in particular, who is often quite distracted and seems to be experiencing visions, is convinced that their son is hiding in the woods nearby. And there’s also that video game of Denis’s, which still seems to be working, despite being found in the sea many months earlier. A pair of potential buyers come to visit the house, accompanied by a go-getting estate agent (played by Alfredo Castro) who dreams of building up a business around the rig and the legend of the sea monster (“when Scotland was in the grips of an economic crisis, they invented the legend of Loch Ness, and the area was overrun with tourists”). But how can they sell up and leave just when they’re seeing signs that things aren’t exactly as they seem and when there might still be room for hope?

Dusk Stone is a film “about our relationship with our childhood and with the passing of time”, the Argentine director explains. Indeed, in their unusual and peaceful grieving process, the protagonist couple seem to gradually take on their lost son’s viewpoint. The entire movie is immersed in a grey, post-apocalyptic atmosphere, accompanied by an intense musical score and exuding the air of a 1950s film. The feeling the film leaves behind is one of profound compassion and affection for this broken family, which is trying to survive an unbearable tragedy as best it can.

Dusk Stone is produced by Argentine firms Rita Cine and Insomnia Films, in co-production with Chile’s Globo Rojo Films and Spain’s Nephilim Producciones. International sales are entrusted to France’s Elle Driver.

(Translated from Italian)