The Desert Within (trailer)

Religious madness and protective love that turns to hatred combine for an intense mixture in Mexican film of Rodrigo Pla’s “The Desert Within.”  Tracing the logical downward spiral of a guilt-ridden father’s attempts to make amends with God, the pic will be too symbolic and metaphorical for general audiences.

The premise -- that a parent, tempting fate out of the desire to get his newborn baptized, would conclude that God wants him to take his family deep into the desert to build a church -- suggests a sister film to Bunuel’s “Simon of the Desert,” but Pla’s work never reaches such crazy heights. Script by Laura Santullo and Pla is a chamber drama that develops into strange landscape cinema, appearing to bridge influences from Mexican author Juan Rulfo to “Woman in the Dunes.”

Well-paced prelude is set during the bloodiest period of the Mexican revolution (in 1928), when whole towns suspected of supporting rebels were wiped out by government troops. Even priests and their churches aren’t safe, as Elias (Mario Zaragoza) discovers when his baby Aureliano is about to be born. To not have a baptism is out of the question, yet to go to the priest for one is sure to attract the eye of the military. Even Elias’ mother (Dolores Heredia, in a fine, stern turn) questions his judgment for inviting such danger, and sure enough, troops descend on the town of San Isidro.

Forced to flee with his immediate family, Elias has a vision of God (fancifully imagined by animators Rita Basulto and Juan Medina), and is convinced his children will die prematurely for his sin of bringing death to the town. With his brood and sickly baby Aureliano tucked inside a glass case for protection (a vivid sight), Elias treks to the desert.

Do you like to see the trailer in an english version? :

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=44994179

Central section set in 1934 establishes a bizarre yet thoroughly realized world, in which the family has begun building a church. Aureliano is locked in a room, supposedly to protect him from the outside world; he desperately tries to grasp hold of anything outside his tiny window, but is forbidden from touching his siblings. The sophisticated narrative reveals the reason for this tactile prohibition only later.Elias manages to colonize his children’s minds, but the film’s central concern is his gradual loss of control as the kids mature. “The Desert Within” metaphorically traces how belief can become totalitarian, and also how it can be eroded by the development of independent intelligence. Eventually, this means that older Aureliano will emerge outdoors, and the emotional payoff from this shift reps a high point.

Zaragoza’s remarkable perf goes from abject self-loathing and reverence to near-homicidal madness and paternal affection, in the kind of role that, in an earlier time and in a Yank context, George C. Scott would have reveled in. When Aureliano and favorite sister Micaela (Katia Xanat Espino) shockingly cross a moral line, Elias’ response underscores the film’s view that people allow affection and mystical belief to push their lives in all the wrong directions.

Classy production portrays life in the desert in suitably biblical terms, with lenser Segueo Salvidar Tanaka and and composers Jacobo Lieberman and Leonardo Heiblum providing huge contributions. Pic runs a bit too long, with editing by Pla and Ana García stretching things to convey an epic vibe.

Extraterrestrial's desert...

Mars is the only other planet on which we have identified wind-shaped (eolian) features. Although its surface atmospheric pressure is only about one-hundredth that of Earth, global circulation patterns on Mars have formed a circumpolar sand sea of more than five million square kilometers, an area greater than the Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia, the largest sand sea on our planet. Martian sand seas consist predominantly of crescent-shaped dunes on plains near the perennial ice cap of the north polar area. Smaller dune fields occupy the floors of many large craters in the polar regions.

Mars has been also the inspiration of many fantastic writers, an important number of culte novels confirmed this particular fascination. We can recognize a rich imaginary about this stranger planet. 

The doors' desert...

Waiting for the Sun is The Doors' third studio album. It was released in 1968 and became the band's first and only number one album and spawned their second US number one single, "Hello, I Love You". It also became the band's first hit album in the UK, where it peaked at #16 in the chart. With the exception of two songs, the material for this album was written after the band's initial songs from the formation of the group had been recorded for their debut album and second album, Strange Days. The highlight of this album was supposed to be the lengthy theatrical piece "Celebration of the Lizard" , but in the end only the  "Not to Touch the Earth" section was used. The song "Waiting for the Sun" would not appear on an album until Morrison Hotel.

But 1968 was also the year of an unforgetable concert of the group in the desert of Arizona. This concert is considered  one of the most emblematic presentations of The Doors and several fans keep in theirs minds the wonderful landscape and energy of the moment.

 

Michael Ende's desert...

The Neverending Story (Die unendliche Geschichte) is, with Momo, the most representative Michael Ende’s fantastic novel.  The novel was later adapted into several films.

The majority of the story takes place in the parallel world of Fantasia, a world being destroyed by the Nothing. The first protagonist is a young warrior, Atreyu,  who is asked by the sick Empress to set off and find the cure for their world. The other protagonist is a boy from the real world, Bastian, a reader of the novel  with the same title, for whom the story gradually becomes more and more realistic.

The book centers on a boy, Bastian Balthazar Bux, who meets a man who owns an antique book store. Bastian steals a book from the store called The Neverending Story, which he reads and soon becomes a part of.

The book begins in  Fantasia, when a  "will-o-'-the-wisp" "goes to ask the Childlike Empress for help against the Nothing,  which is spreading over the land. The Empress is ill, which is believed to be the cause of the Nothing; she sends the only person that can stop the Nothing, a boy warrior named Atreyu, to find a cure for her. Atreyu is a brave person, being considered a man even though he is a young boy of Bastian's age.

While on his quest, Atreyu meets characters such as Benjamin, Uyulala, and the gnomes Urgl and Engywook. Atreyu also meets Falkor, the luckdragon, who helped him along the way. After Falkor accidentally drops Atreyu in Spook City, Atreyu meets G'mork the werewolf, who has been following Atreyu since the early days of his quest, intending to kill him. G'mork soon dies; Falkor and Atreyu leave Spook City to find the Ivory Tower, where the Childlike Empress lives. The Childlike Empress reveals that the only thing that can save Fantasia is a human child, who must give her a new name to start again the cycle of life in Fantasia.

Bastian comes to Fantasia by naming the Empress 'Moon Child'; she asks him to help re-build Fantasia with his imagination, and he subsequently has many adventures of his own in his new world. With the help of the Auryn, a Gem that links him to the Empress, that gives him power over all the inhabitants of Fantasia and grants all of the boy's wishes, Bastian explores the Desert of Colors, battles the evil Xayide, and meets the three Deep Thinkers. Bastian becomes friends with Atreyu, although their rivalry leads to a fight in which Atreyu is wounded. Bastian thereafter is corrupted by Xayide, who drives him to a lust for power. He is defeated in his attempt to start a coup d'état against the Childlike Empress. Bastian is unaware that every wish he makes takes away one of his memories, until it is very late and he no longer remembers anything of his past.

Eventually, Atreyu helps him, and Bastian then learns the true meaning of his mission with the Auryn. After he returns home, he decides to return the book to its owner, Carl Conrad Coreander, but the book disappears after Bastian returns from Fantasia. He explains this to Carl Conrad Coreander, who is interested in Bastian's adventures and wants to keep in touch to talk about them.

Grograman, "The Many Colored Death"

By: Jessica Menn 

Grograman: is the guardian and lord over Goab, the Desert of Colors, which keeps the rapid growth of Perilin the Night Forest in check. He appears in the form of a huge lion, who changes colors much like a chameleon based on the color of sand he is treading on. He is said to "bring the desert with him", turning all life around him into sand, thus his nickname "The Many Colored Death". Bastian is protected from this effect by AURYN. Grograman turns into an obsidian statue at night in order to allow the growth of Perilin. He gives Bastian his magic (and seemingly intelligent) sword, Sikanda.

Wirikuta, huichol's desert...

The homeland of the Huichols is remote. It is protected from the outside by the difficult access to its communities in remote parts of the Sierra Madre Mountains in the states of Jalisco and Nayarit. Due to the isolation of its villages, the people have until recently managed to resist all but the most minor modifications from western sources. As a result, their art - synonymous with religious devotion - has remained in tact and intensely personal.

The word, Huichol, derived from Wirrarika, is the original name of these indigenous people. It means soothsayer or medicine man. The medicine man is the shaman who links the community with the "other world" from where their creativity pours forth as a gift from their deified ancestors to be given back as offerings to the gods.

Because the Huichol believe God has given them everything including their talents and abilities, pilgrimages are made every year by families as well as single individuals, young and old, to the sacred land of Wirikuta to hunt the Blue Deer (peyote). They bring with them offerings in return for the gift of making art and entering the priesthood. The ceremonial offerings include pictures, masks and candles and are considered material forms of prayer.

The Huichol believe their deified ancient ancestors, the First People, once dwelled in Wirikuta and were driven out into the Sierra Madre Occidental to now live a mortal agrarian existence. The Wirikuta desert is located to the northeast of the present Huichol communities. The pilgrims, led by a mara'akame (shaman) to cleanse the way, travel 600 miles round trip to re-enter the sacred land.

During the trip, they perform a series of rituals and ceremonies to transform themselves into deities. At different locations, they adopt more and more of their divine identities and assume the feelings and attitudes attributed to the First People.

If the ceremonial thoughts and actions are properly performed, the peyote will be found and "slain" with a bow and arrow. A slice of peyote will be given to each of the "peyoteros" who will then have their own personal visions. They will talk to God, receive instructions about how to proceed and will, thereafter, sing, cure, or create.

This moment of the sharing of the peyote is the fulfillment of the highest goals in Huichol religious life. They have traveled to paradise, transformed themselves into deities, communed with the gods with whom they don't stay long, and then return as mortals.

From the ecstasy of that experience the artwork of the people is born. In the Huichol culture, there can be no art without religion or religion without art. Religion is not a part of life. It is life. The gods are everywhere including the trees, hills and lakes. Even the lowly stone has a soul. These intensely religious people immerse themselves throughout their lives in this awareness through ritual and the execution of sacred symbols.

Huichol, el viaje místico

By:  Francisco Gabriel Ortuño Silva (animation) & Mariano Valadez Navarro (design)

Art is the people's means of direct communication with the deities. It is meant to ensure prosperity, health and fertility, and bountiful crops. Its application promotes the general welfare of the community and is always functional as well as beautiful.

"Jicuri", the peyote plant is prominent in Huichol art. It is the plant of life that promotes harmonious relations with the gods. Sometime it's represented as the original ear of corn because both carry the colors of white, yellowish green, red and blue. Sometimes it's represented as antlers, which is a symbol of the first jicuri. All three representations hold the same meaning in Huichol myth and are interchangeable in symbolic meaning.

Another prominent symbol in Huichol art is the serpent. Because it protects corn and peyote, it is one of the most powerful animals in the Huichol cosmogony. Four female deities are represented by the serpent: Rapabiyema, the blue serpent, who lives in the south. Kapuri, the white serpent, who lives in the north. Sakaymura, the black serpent, who lives in the west. And Vaaliwa'me, the earth mother and red serpent, who lives in the east.

Takutzi Nakahue, mother of all gods and of corn, with her symbols of the sacred tree, the armadillo, the bear, the water serpent and rain is also well represented. As is Tamat's Kauyumari, the older brother who shaped the world. He can appear in the guises of deer, coyote, pine tree, or whirlwind.

Tatewari is the spirit of fire, who lives on earth and is the god of life and health. He is often represented by a reddish-brown color. Tatewari is the chief ally of shamans and accompanies the pilgrims on their journey to Wirikuta.

All of these symbols and many more are produced in the highly decorative art form of which the Huichol are masters. Every item, from carved musical instruments to masks and votive gourds, carries heavily symbolic, esoteric, and beautifully rendered symbols.

Even clothing is a sacred manifestation of God's work and worthy of prayer in the form of artwork. Huichol men have embroidered symbols and patterns cross-stitched into their clothing. The hems of their trousers often bears the flower pattern of the peyote plant. Boys' hats are decorated with squirrel tails and the feathers of eagles and hawks, symbols of the first peyote hunt. A Huichol in traditional dress on the streets of a dusty Mexican village is a beautiful sight to behold.