A scene from “Araya,” the winner of the Fiprisci Critics� Award at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. The film finally makes its New York debut this Wednesday. (Milestone Films)
The Araya region was defined by a relationship to the sea that brings to mind Coleridge’s verse. The villagers’ livelihood, hardscrabble as it might have been, derived entirely from the water—specifically through fishing and harvesting the salt marshes. Indeed, it was their plentiful supply of formerly precious salt that made Araya such a valuable colonial property centuries ago. Yet the plumbing-less Araya residents were dependent on the tanker truck that regularly supplied their only potable water.
Though Benacerraf faithfully records the harsh realities of life on the peninsula, it is debatable whether “Araya” can rightly be classified a documentary. While everyone in the film was indeed an actual Araya resident, she carefully cast villagers for their specific roles within her story of a day-in-the-life of the region.
The nature of the salt marsh work immortalized through Benacerraf’s lens was clearly laborious, even toxic, but the mood of “Araya” is generally languid. Guy Bernard’s romantic score never sounds a discordant note until late in the film, when trucks and machinery suddenly invade “Araya,” threatening the traditional methods of salt harvesting.
If there was ever a region desperately in need of modernization, Araya seemed to be it. Yet throughout the film, Benacerraf essentially fixates on her subjects’ extreme poverty and constant toil. With cinematographer Giusseppe Nisoli, she creates some striking black-and-white imagery, but her lovingly framed shots of shirtless workers feel more akin to contemporary fashion commercials than socially minded film making.
“Araya” is undeniably a beautifully crafted film, but the extent to which Benacerraf objectifies her subjects is ultimately quite problematic. Despite its initial acclaim at Cannes, “Araya” was never well distributed in any market. Periodically, fate would rescue the film from oblivion, only to consign it back into obscurity just as quickly. It is certainly a film of legitimate historical significance (particularly to students of Latin American cinema), but most contemporary audiences will simply regard it as a curiosity. It opens Wednesday (10/7) at the IFC Film Center.
Joe Bendel blogs on jazz and cultural issues at http://jbspins.blogspot.com and coordinated the Jazz Foundation of America's instrument donation campaign for musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
