Lorenzo Vigas, From Afar

Venezuelan filmmaker Lorenzo Vigas discusses his unsettling, but stunning, new movie From Afar whose central character, Armando, defines “enigmatic.” A middle-aged dental technician, Armando cruises through Caracas in search of street kids for (paid) sexual pleasure, but never touches them. With no musical score, this stark film is a study of a man terrified of physical intimacy, while dealing with a haunted familial past. These issues come to the forefront in scenes where Armando watches his father from a distance wishing him dead. From Afar won writer-director Vigas The Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival’s top honor, last September. In this interview, he describes the film's themes of power and oppression, that examine ingrained cultural self-hatred and homophobia.

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