“Lumbrensueño” by José Pablo Escamilla deals with the issues of commercialisation of the land, of globalisation and misuse of the country side to honour the gods of business and money. It is the war between urban development and land, community and territory that lies in the background. A quest for a mysterious box is the narrative drive for this visionary and political film. “Lumbrensueño” by José Pablo Escamilla has been presented at Biennale College Cinema 2023.
The native land
the locations of “Lumbrensueño” are the places the director lived in as a young man; he knows perfectly how they were and how they are now, which toll the urbanisation imposed on the territory and the people, stripping them of their identities.
Creative visual approach
José Pablo Escamilla decided to use mixed visual techniques to render the duality of the claustrophobic reality and the poetic fantasy world. The use and choice of music as well is not simply a decoration but a fundamental tile in the composition of the images.
Plot
Lucas is a Mexican teenager who has just arrived with his mother and sister to start over in a gray industrial city in the Toluca Valley. He works at a burger joint where the manager is constantly trying to manipulate him to get the most out of him. He spends his afternoons with his colleague and friend Oscar, a nervous otaku who resists work, family and cosmic pressures. Until he decides to go on a journey and entrusts his most valuable possessions with Lucas, who through the discovery of photography will find a way to capture the light that he observes around him and bring it back home.