A bourgeois American family, on vacation in Peru while the father scouts a site for a new hotel venture he's developing, finds their fate profoundly linked to the lives of a poor Peruvian family who live on the property being eyed for demolition. The name Postales of course translates to "postcards", as in the sale of postcards that is the vocation of 12-year-old protagonist Pablo on the streets of Cuzco, desperately trying to help support his parents. The title also informs the sharp, picturesque visual style of the film, which is laden with gorgeously composed frames featuring the mountainous vistas and ethnographic totems unique to the city.
Postales debuted at the prestigious Edinburgh International Film Festival in Scotland last fall, and I caught it in its US Premiere at the RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina last week. Particularly enthralling is the relationship that builds between Pablo and Mary, an unworldly American pre-teen, against the shrouded Andean backdrop of Cuzco. When older brother Jano implicates the reluctant Pablo into a thievery scheme, the two families are set on a cultural collision course that will forever alter their perceptions and provides for lasting memories that no picture postcard or snapshot could begin to recreate. Featuring English, Spanish, and the pre-Incan indigenous language of Quechua, Postales may be a multi-lingual affair, but its characters ultimately grow to understand the same tongue—the uniting language of cultural perspective and compassion.
Postales debuted at the prestigious Edinburgh International Film Festival in Scotland last fall, and I caught it in its US Premiere at the RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina last week. Particularly enthralling is the relationship that builds between Pablo and Mary, an unworldly American pre-teen, against the shrouded Andean backdrop of Cuzco. When older brother Jano implicates the reluctant Pablo into a thievery scheme, the two families are set on a cultural collision course that will forever alter their perceptions and provides for lasting memories that no picture postcard or snapshot could begin to recreate. Featuring English, Spanish, and the pre-Incan indigenous language of Quechua, Postales may be a multi-lingual affair, but its characters ultimately grow to understand the same tongue—the uniting language of cultural perspective and compassion.