El Blanco

Alejandro Andújar / Dominican Republic / 2021 / 102 min
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  • Rio de Janeiro Int'l Film Festival

  • Cine Fine Arts Int'l Film Festival

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Spanish with English subtitles

With Judith Rodríguez, Ettore D'Alessandro, Karina Valdez

In this tale of racism and gender violence, the woman is the center of the story. As a wife, daughter, or sister, Genesis must respond to a way of being and a way of life attentive to what the men in her life dictate. She must fulfill the role established for her by a hostile and perennial patriarchy.

Genesis is forced to enter into an arranged marriage with a mysterious white man called El Blanco to “improve the race” of the family and attain a better social status. But when Genesis fails to become pregnant and her sister arrives for an unannounced visit, a feverish love triangle begins to take shape in their isolated cabin in the Dominican hinterland.

Press

“Judith Rodríguez and Karina Valdez face each other on screen in a duel of titans. The camera loves them. Andújar takes advantage of that throughout the film, from which you can't detach yourself, like a traffic accident. Tragic and fascinating at the same time.” – Dahiana Acosta, Cinependiente

“Independently of those who seek box-office success, there is a concern of some local filmmakers to delve into the edges of identity of this Dominicanity still unresolved on the screen. Andújar is the best example of them.” – Félix Manuel Lora, Acento

About the Director

Alejandro Andújar studied communication and journalism in Santo Domingo. Later, he went to the International Film and TV School of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba, where he specialized in screenwriting. In 2005, he received a scholarship from the school to complete the Postgraduate Diploma in Screenwriting at the Catalonia Film School (ESCAC). Later, with a scholarship from the Ibermedia program, he completed a Master’s Degree in Screenwriting at the Audiovisual Research Foundation in Valencia, Spain. In 2008, he returned to the Dominican Republic and directed the short documentary A Day in the Market on the border with Haiti.

He formed the company El Balcon Producciones. Since 2010, he has continued to work in script writing and consulting for various national projects. Among them is Cristo Rey (Toronto International Film Festival 2013) by director Leticia Tonos.

He premiered his first feature film The Man Who Heal in 2017. The film was a winner of the curaçao Rotterdam Film Festival, received a special mention at the Manheim- Heidelberg Film Festival, and has participated in more than 15 international festivals.

He shot El Blanco his second feature, with Lantica Media, and released it in 2021. The film was selected at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival in 2022.

 

Notes on Film

“El Blanco unfolds in the Dominican countryside, a quite literal story set in landscapes reminiscent of the novels of Juan Rulfo. It is a tale of racism and gender violence, with an atemporal aesthetic that suggests it could take place at any time. It is a twisted fairy tale both modern and from the past. The mystery at the heart of this film involves the relationship between a foreigner — white, blue-eyed, and apparently rich — and Genesis, a Dominican woman who hopes he will free her from a prison of poverty, and maybe even somehow change the color of her skin. But this man, known as El Blanco: is he a savior? Or something else? This chamber piece is sustained by such dilemmas, which have plagued our country since the colonialist era.”

– Alejandro Andújar, Director

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