Liverpool

On his way south along the Argentinean coast, Farrel, the captain of a freighter, asks for a leave of absence at the next port. He wants to visit his childhood town to see if his mother still lives. He has never visited his hometown during his twenty years as a sailor. At home he discovers that his mother is still alive but also that no one knows him any more. As usual, it is impossible to describe Lisandro Alonso’s movies in words. They are quiet observations, visual poetry that slowly paints the outlines of life. Films from the South screened Alonso’s debut, La Libertad (2002), which won the FIPRESCI award that year. Liverpool is Argentina in winter clothes, where Farrel visits Tierra del Fuego in the south, an area marked by depopulation. Alonso’s everyday observations of Farrel convey only simple actions. We see him pack his bag, have a drink in a bar and several sips of liquor that he brings along. Farrel’s tendency to drink as he nears his hometown suggests that conflicts lie ahead. But his meetings with people are meetings between two highly different worlds, where Farrel’s betrayal is irreparable. The conflicts implode rather than explode and the lack of resolution, reconciliation and forgiveness is a far heavier punishment than Farrel expected. The seeming ordinariness of all of Farrel’s actions, also as he makes his most dramatic choices, lends a bitter ambiguity to what we observe. Lisandro Alonso has again composed a quiet little masterpiece that confirms his ability to go his entirely own ways.