''Between the Moon and Montevideo'' is a Canadian science fiction film, directed by
Attila Bertalan
Attila Bertalan is a Canadian actor and filmmaker. He is most noted for his 1990 film '' A Bullet in the Head'', which was selected as Canada's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1991."Bullet in the Head chosen for ...
and released in 2000.Gerald Pratley, ''A Century of Canadian Cinema''. Lynx Images, 2003. . pp. 25-26.
The film is set on a small asteroid orbiting between the Earth and the Moon, which has been settled by humans as a mining colony; poverty and despair are rampant, but the only way to return to Earth is a rocket belonging to Russian gangsters who charge far more money for passage than anybody but El Señor (Armando Fernandez Soler), the leader of the colony, can ever hope to attain. Bertalan himself stars as Tobi, a scrap dealer who teams up with hustler Tony-Lee (Russell Yuen) in a plan to steal El Señor's money so that he can return home to
Montevideo
Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
.Glen Schaefer, "Wacky and witless with fine acting". ''
The Province
''The Province'' is a daily newspaper published in tabloid format in British Columbia by Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, alongside the ''Vancouver Sun'' broadsheet newspaper. Together, they are British Columbia's only ...
'', June 1, 2001. The film also stars Gérard Gagnon as Louis, an enforcer for the gangsters, and
Pascale Bussières
Pascale Bussières (born June 27, 1968) is a French Canadian actress.
Life and work
Born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Pascale Bussières first attracted attention as a suicidal teenager in Micheline Lanctôt’s 1984 film '' Sonatine''; however ...
as Juta, Louis's girlfriend who is sympathetic to Tobi's plight as she also dreams of escaping.
The film was shot in
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.
,
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
in 1999. It premiered at the 2000
Fantasia Film Festival
Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...
, before going into limited commercial release in 2001.
Critical response
The film was not well received by critics. Glen Schaefer of ''
The Province
''The Province'' is a daily newspaper published in tabloid format in British Columbia by Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, alongside the ''Vancouver Sun'' broadsheet newspaper. Together, they are British Columbia's only ...
'' wrote that the film was intermittently interesting, but concluded that "the overall effect is of warmed-over
Robert Rodriguez
Robert Anthony Rodriguez (; born June 20, 1968) is an American filmmaker, composer, and visual effects supervisor. He shoots, edits, produces, and scores many of his films in Mexico and in his home state of Texas. Rodriguez directed the 1992 ac ...
, or maybe ''
Touch of Evil
''Touch of Evil'' is a 1958 American film noir written and directed by Orson Welles, who also stars in the film. The screenplay was loosely based on the contemporary Whit Masterson novel ''Badge of Evil'' (1956). The cast included Charlton Hes ...
'' without
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...
or wit. A key plot turn near the end comes as an out-of-character betrayal, a cheat of the audience. Give Bertalan a break for the wacky physics behind this noir fantasy and he rewards you with a plot that ultimately makes little sense."
Rick Groen of ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'' wrote that "Visually, it makes for an arresting spectacle, but the film's lapses in cohesiveness suggest that, working on a tight location schedule, Bertalan may simply have run out of time and money to shoot the script he wanted, forcing him to patch over the shortfalls in the cutting room. If so, that's a shame, because there's much to delight both eye and ear here, including Bertalan himself. Bald and diminutive yet with a burly physique, he's an oddly compelling presence on camera, looking like some weird cross between Bruce Willis and
Wallace Shawn
Wallace Michael Shawn (born November 12, 1943) is an American actor, playwright, and essayist. His film roles include Wally Shawn (a fictionalized version of himself) in '' My Dinner with Andre'' (1981), Vizzini in ''The Princess Bride'' (1987), ...
— his very appearance is as genre-bending as his movie. Thanks to his various inputs, somewhere in ''Between the Moon and Montevideo'', a good film is struggling to be born. In the interim, we're left to faintly praise the rough sketch and fondly wish for the finished picture."
Stephen Cole of the ''
National Post
The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...
'' wrote that except for Bussières the film wasn't particularly well-acted, concluding that "a stronger cast and a tighter script might have turned ''Between the Moon and Montevideo'' into something truly out of this world. As it stands, however, the film is no more than a striking, fatally flawed curiosity piece."
Jutra Award
The Prix Iris is a Canadian film award, presented annually by Québec Cinéma, which recognizes talent and achievement in the mainly francophone feature film industry in Quebec.Best Editing at the
4th Jutra Awards The 4th Jutra Awards were held on February 17, 2002, to honour films made with the participation of the Quebec film industry in 2001.Agnes Poirier"Quebec Jutra awards finalists announced" '' Screen Daily'', January 24, 2002.
'' Soft Shell Man (Un ...