''Fortitude'' ( es, La Fortaleza) is a 2020 internationally co-produced
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
film directed by
Jorge Thielen Armand
Jorge Thielen Armand (born 1990, in Caracas, Venezuela) is a film director, screenwriter and Film producer, producer. He studied communications at Concordia University in Montreal, and later, with Rodrigo Michelangeli, founded the Canadian-Venezu ...
. It premiered in the Tiger Competition of the 49th
International Film Festival Rotterdam
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental fi ...
. A co-production between Venezuela, Colombia, France and The Netherlands, the film premiered in Venezuelan cinemas on 23 December 2021.
Plot
''La Fortaleza'' is inspired by the real life story of the filmmaker's father, Jorge Roque Thielen, who in turn plays the main character. It is noted that the film oscillates between fiction and reality.
Roque, the protagonist, dives into the jungle to escape from his alcoholism, his demons and the social and
economic crisis in Venezuela. However, the meeting with old friends and the promises of gold at a work in a mine divert his desire for redemption and he enters a vicious circle of violence around mining. This will make him sink in a cycle that devours his interior. In that moment, he will need the fortitude to emerge from the darkness and walk toward a new beginning.
Cast
* Jorge Roque Thielen H.
* Carlos "Fagua" Medina
* Yoni Naranjo
* Leudys Naranjo
Reception
Jordan Cronk of
Film Comment claimed that ''La Fortaleza'' was "a solemn tale of exile and redemption". Sergio Monsalve of
El Nacional wrote that "in its paradoxes lies the best cinema of Venezuela". It also received the Special Mention in the
Rome Independent Film Festival
Rome Independent Film Festival (or RIFF) is an annual film festival held every November in Rome, Italy to represent and promote independent filmmakers globally. The festival was started in 2001, and its 25th event was held in 2018. In November 20 ...
2020. It was awarded the Grand Prix Marchica for Best Film and the Best Actor Award at the Festival International De Cinéma Et De Mémoire Commune in Nador, Morocco.
It won the Audience Award for Best Film at the Iberoamerican Film Festival of Quito.
The film was released concurrently with ''
El Father Plays Himself
''El Father Plays Himself'' is a 2020 internationally co-produced documentary film directed by Mo Scarpelli, an Italian-American filmmaker. It premiered at the 51º Visions du Réel and it’s a co-production between Venezuela, United Kingdom, It ...
'', a documentary by
Mo Scarpelli about the making of ''La Fortaleza''.
Awards and nominations
References
External links
*
*
La Fortaleza' at
FilmAffinity
FilmAffinity is a movie recommendations website created in 2002 in Madrid, Spain by the film critic Pablo Kurt Verdú Schumann and the programmer Daniel Nicolás. As of 2016, the site listed 125,000 movies and series and had 556,000 reviews wri ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fortitude
2020 films
2020 drama films
Venezuelan drama films
Colombian drama films
French drama films
Dutch drama films
Canadian drama films
Spanish-language French films
Spanish-language Canadian films
2020s Colombian films
2020s French films
2020s Canadian films