¡Viva! Reviews/ Ruido Rosa

¡Viva! Reviewer India Morgan considers Roberto Flores Prieto’s Ruido Rosa.

If there is only one film you see in the ¡Viva! Weekender, make it Ruido Rosa by Colombian director Roberto Flores Prieto. Prieto returns to ¡Viva! after his acclaimed Cazando luciérnagas screened at last year’s festival. Showcasing cinematography at its best, this tentative romance gently explores themes of loneliness, disconnection, ruin and restoration in what is a well-written, well-acted and utterly beautiful film.

Luis lives an isolated existence in his rundown radio and TV repair workshop, which fails to shelter him from the tropical rain season. Not far away, working in a declining three star hotel, Carmen detaches herself from cleaning duties by tuning in to her audio English course and dreaming about joining her brother in New York.

Carmen is an avid cinema-goer, who defies loneliness with Hollywood escapism and the simple pleasures of chocolate and Chinese takeaway. It is only when her radio breaks that she starts to connect with the wider world. She seeks out tradesman Luis, who offers his utmost professional service, and the repair becomes more than a simple radio fix for these two solitary souls.

Sparse dialogue and a still camera bring a photographic quality to the film; the images could be postcards were it not for the characters walking in and out of the frame. An objective lens documents life with stark indifference, and the soundtrack of relentless rain captures its monotony. Static shots implore the viewer to search for beauty in this ordinary town awash with desolation, and the beauty does indeed filter through.

With whispers of Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez’s novel, Love in the Time of Cholera, Flores successfully captures the “frequency, rhythm and harmony of love,” and its magic, warmth and potential to strike at any point in our lives. The result is a poignant and poetic film, and my personal favourite in the ¡Viva! Weekender. Don’t miss it!

Ruido Rosa screens on Sunday 8 and Monday 9 March as part of the ¡Viva! Weekender. We are pleased to welcome director Roberto Flores Prieto for a Q&A after the screening on Sunday 8 March.