Some Kind of Sadness (Alguna Tristeza)

Juan Alejandro Ramirez
PERU, 2006
Spanish
41 minutes • Color
Production Company: Otrotono
Screenwriter: Juan Alejandro Ramirez
Cinematography: Juan Alejandro Ramirez
Music: Sergey Rachmaninov, Fernando Sor, Francisco Tarrega

SHOWTIMES:
Mon Apr 30 3:30pm WTTS Screening Room (Landmark)

Tues May 1 5:30pm (Key Cinemas)

At the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, the Peruvian soccer team won a remarkable quarterfinal match against the highly favored Austrians. The Olympic committee later ruled that the field was not regulation size, therefore the
match had to be replayed. The Peruvians objected (the field, after all, had been used in other matches), but their protests were in vain. The team decided they would rather withdraw than face racism and unfair treatment.

Director Ramírez begins Alguna Tristeza with the wistful faces of the soccer players on the 1936 team. He uses strong images to capture the sorrow that is somehow interwoven in Peruvian history. Poverty, injustice, loss and marginalisation characterise the culture, and the people seem to have ceased expecting anything else. This associative and poetic film reflects not only on the sorrow, but also on the strength and creativity with which the people manage to remain standing. Wm. Brian Owens