History of Fear
Description
In an anonymous fast food restaurant, a disturbed young man contorts his body and paralyzes onlookers as if they were hostages held at gunpoint. At a tollbooth, a naked stranger steps in front of a car and its occupants react like he is a suicide bomber. A fence surrounding an affluent Buenos Aires suburb is breached and the residents are certain that some threat will slip through the gap. In fact, paranoia grips every member of the ensemble in Benjamín Naishtat’s thriller, instilling a disorienting sense of dread and enticing the viewer to join in the characters’ hysteria. As History of Fear unfolds on multiple fronts, there are echoes of Neighboring Sounds, the 2012 SFIFF standout from Brazil. Employing a disquieting sound design to great effect, Naishtat displays an aptitude for strangleholds that would earn a stern nod of approval from Michael Haneke. His film may be sprawling in both scope and implications but it’s astonishingly exacting in its execution. As Naishtat’s pawns close ranks for the climax, this young director’s control of technique and tone leaves one in a state similar to those aforementioned fast food customers: waiting on tenterhooks for him to make his next move. –Curtis Woloschuk
A native of Buenos Aires, Benjamín Naishtat graduated from the city’s Universidad del Cine in 2008 and served as artist-in-residence at Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains in France until 2011. That year, he marked his homecoming by winning Best Short Film at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema for The Game (El juego). The subsequent experimental piece History of Evil (Historia del Mal) (2011) examined a dark chapter of Argentina’s past. History of Fear is Naishtat’s first feature film. He continues to live and work in Buenos Aires.
Trailer
//player.vimeo.com/video/90582040?autoplay=1Film Details
Language Spanish
Original Language Title Historia del miedo
Year 2014
Runtime 79
Country Argentina/France/Germany/Qatar/Uruguay
Director Benjamín Naishtat
Producer Benjamín Doménech, Santiago Gallelli
Writer Benjamín Naishtat
Editor Andrés Quaranta, Fernando Epstein
Cinematographer Soledad Rodríguez
Cast Jonathan Da Rosa, Tatiana Giménez, Mirella Pascual, Claudia Cantero, Francisco Lumerman
Print Source Visit Films/ al@visitfilms.com