Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana

Review
Reviewed Work(s): Los viajes del viento by Ciro Guerra
Review by: Eduardo Alfonso Caro Meléndez
Source: Chasqui, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Noviembre 2010), pp. 257-260
Published by: Chasqui: revista de literatura latinoamericana
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41340909
Accessed: 12-08-2020 21:00 UTC

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 Film Reviews 257

Los viajes del vient

min.

Los viajes del viento , or The Wind Journeys , is Colombian director Ciro Guerra's second full-
length film, after his first black and white La sombra del caminante , or The Wandering Shadows
(2004). In La sombra del caminante , Guerra's lens focuses on Bogotá, the capital city of Colombia,
film which can certainly be included in the long list of the so called Latin American urban cinema. In
his second cinematic work, Guerra switches his focus to some of the rural areas of Colombia,
namely some of the north regions of the country, primarily the departments (in Colombian
geography, a department corresponds to what would be a state in the geographical system of The
United States) of Cesar, Sucre, Córdoba, and La Guajira, areas which, as a matter of fact, have been
heavily hit by guerilla and paramilitary groups. Interestingly enough, these areas, for the most part,
had previously been invisible to Colombian directors and filmmakers and consequently to national
and international audiences. The fact that Guerra decided to bring attention to these areas could
definitely be considered as one of his innovations. Guerra himself is from a town called Rio de Oro
(located in Cesar, one of Colombia's northern departments.)
Los viajes del viento is about a rural man, Ignacio Carrillo, a juglar who is an expert at both
singing vallenato music and playing the accordion. In the vallenato singing tradition a juglar is a
man who is well respected among the population for his skillfulness at both singing, composing and
reciting verses - without preparation, just on the spot - and playing the accordion. Ignacio learned
this special skill from his maestro (master) Guerra, a legendary maestro who lives in the desert of La
Guajira, the most northern region of Colombia where indigenous cultures, like the Wayuu aborigines
live. When the diegetic narration begins, Ignacio does not live in La Guajira , but in Majagual (in the
department of Sucre); however he feels compelled to go back there to return the accordion to his
master as he has decided not to sing or play the accordion any longer due to the loneliness through
which he is going, as a result of his wife's recent and unexpected death.
This is basically the diegetic thread: passing through a variety of native cultures and breath-
taking landscapes, Ignacio takes a journey from his small town called Majagual, all the way to
Taroa, a small village in the Guajira desert, where his master is supposed to be waiting for him. At a
certain point at the beginning of this journey, Ignacio comes across Fermín, a teenager who admires
him and whose illusion in life is to follow Ignacio 's footsteps as he definitely wants to be like him: a
juglar and an expert drum and accordion player. Since Ignacio feels lonely, he accepts Fermin's
company. Then they both start the journey together. A detail of interest in the diegetic story is that the
accordion that Ignacio intends to return to his old master is said to be cursed in such a way that
whoever has and plays it would suffer some kind of misfortune or adversity, including death. A
visual hint of this curse is the fact that the accordion has two horns, like that type of horns with
which we usually associate the image of a devil. In this way, it can be argued that the accordion itself
becomes a central character in the story, just like it has become mainly in the Cesar and Guajira
juglar traditions. From this, as a consequence of that curse, one gathers that that was the reason why
Ignacio 's wife died. At a moment in the narration, one hears a phrase like "[el] Diablo se llevó a la
mujer de Ignacio. " (the devil took Ignacio 's wife's life.) This is, by the way, another point of interest
in this film: as part of Guerra's project of bringing these sociofilmic realities - that had been kept in
the periphery - to national and international audiences, he manages to illustrate some of the
traditions, legends, and myths of those northern cultures of Colombia, which again had been
neglected in Colombian sociofilmic representations.
It is important, though, to keep in mind that Guerra's second visual narrative is a representation
of the customs and traditions of those above-mentioned areas of Colombia in the decade of the
1960's. This is why, for instance, in one of the stops that Ignacio and Fermín make, we can see the

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258 Film Reviews

representation of th
took place on April
Ignacio participates
extradiegetic cultural
actually takes place e
the most popular ge
vallenatas.
Another of Guerra's
these peripheries to
Colombia's film prod
problematic term - C
second largest city i
Schroeder, 2000), La
Gaviria, 1990), amon
we hear in Los viaje
Colombia, that is va
such as Bantu, Wayu
disguising these dial
mestizos, indigenous,
it could be argued th
Basilio de San Palen
filmic project is wel
which no doubt helps
in Colombia as many
Moreover, in regard
sound of the wind, w
the sounds - diegeti
communities, one ca
done before. We wou
to be another contem
like Los viajes has bee
aspect in the narratio
character of this soc
does travel but also
mentioned the impo
worth pointing ou
geographical margin
brings to the forefr
apparently of an ext
purpose of somehow
and violent scenes,
explicitly give atten
Closely linked to th
implicitly or explici
"new" voices, Los via
violencia - that we
and Sumas y restas
perro , among sever
grouped into that ca
violencia. Unquestio

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Film Reviews 259

reading. On the one h

of these is at a momen
of village men ask Ign
more exact) is taking
he refuses to do so on
machete (¿como qué n
That is, in the midst
companion Fermín and
the result of this due
machete but Guerra' s
he leaves a huge chun
falling dramatically in
hides the brutal fight
and takes place in th
popular practice of la
that any tension, any
language and with a
come near the desert
Fermín finds Ignacio
been assaulted and that
be feared in the area.
finally succeeds but pa
down by a much old
teenager: cruel physic
As we mentioned abo
violence of language.
variety of- alluding
marked by different s
like to term as the n
northern dialects and
Colombian), Guerra su
everyday violent lang
interesting to see how
de los sicarios (Barbe
(Emilio Maillé, 2005),
2008), films in whic
problematic by both
language that, in vari
his skills at playing t
with what Fermín doe
terrible, nunca vas a
never going to learn
contrary, he is always
linguistic violence or o
Fermín does not give u
As the diegesis come
young companion ma
Guajira- the land of
return the accordion t
is a wayuu woman)

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 260 Film Reviews

tremendous hit and

giving such news to
had written and left
of the style of Europ
close look at Fermín
companion - whom
disapproving remarks
Ignacio cannot help b
the notes of the accor
had been indicated. F
director) would invite
Curiously, Maestro
director of Los viajes
terribly marked Colom
No doubt, Guerra's g
worth praising; none
not completely heard
its so rooted violent
captured other realiti

Eduardo Alfon

Viajo porque preciso,

75 min.

Viajo porque preciso, volto porque te amo es un "road movie" que relata la travesía de un geolo-
go de 35 años que recorre el nordeste brasileño extrañando a su mujer en un monólogo nostálgico.
Al geólogo José Renato le ha sido encomendada la misión de hacer una investigación en el sertón
del nordeste para ver la viabilidad de construir un canal a partir de la desviación del río más
caudaloso del lugar. Este canal para algunas familias significará la llegada de la modernidad, para
otras será el desalojo. Muchos de los lugares que recorre estarán sumergidos eventualmente por el
agua. La geografía interna del investigador se va identificando lentamente con la geografía vacía del
nordeste. El fin de la relación con su mujer lo lleva a una profunda reflexión sobre la vida y el vacío.
La película es interesante por el tono existencial, por los lugares que encuentra en medio de la nada,
sus conversaciones con prostitutas, donde de pronto se torna en un documental por la mirada atenta,
que sólo muestra a una mujer en espera de clientes. El título proviene de las frases ingeniosas que
escriben los camioneros como una síntesis de su sabiduría de viaje en las defensas de sus camiones
que pueden ir de lo humoroso al proselitismo (por ejemplo, en esta que leí en una reciente visita:
"deus sim você e deus, mais você sem deus sei nada"), o en el caso del título de la película, en la
pared cercana a un baño.
La película termina en Acapulco, con los clavadistas de la quebrada, en un salto olímpico de
espacio narrativo pero que puede significar el inicio de una nueva vida para el personaje. Uno de los
momentos más rescatadles, es cuando el viajero se encuentra con una familia que vive sin luz
eléctrica, sin ningún medio de comunicación y una de las jóvenes lee Dom Casmurro para paliar el
aburrimiento. El hombre se pregunta, ¿por qué no puedo vivir como ellos? ¿por qué no puedo estar
alejado de todo y encontrar allí la felicidad? Se detiene también con una familia que se dedica a la
producción de colchones de paja, los muestra en medio de sus labores, introduciendo el cómodo
empaque en unas floridas fundas. También muestra la soledad de los hoteles, las paredes

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