The Violin

Directed by Francisco Vargas
Film Movement
2005
98 Minutes
Mexico
Spanish
Drama, Latin American, Music
Not Rated
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DVD
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Somewhere in Latin America a family of musicians and modest farmers join a fearless guerilla movement attempting to overthrow the brutal and sadistic government. When the military seizes their village, they flee to the sierra hills, forced to leave behind their stock of ammunition. While the guerillas organize a counter-attack, old Plutarco plays up his appearance as a harmless violin player in order to get into the village and recover the ammunition hidden in his corn fields. His violin playing charms the army captain, who orders Plutarco to come back daily. With tension escalating sky-high, guns and music take on a near holy significance with hundreds of lives hanging in the balance.

Cast

  • Ángel Tavira
DVD Features

Bonus short: Un bisou pour le monde, directed by Cyril Paris

Sound: Stereo 2.0

Discs: 1

  • Highest Rating
    "One of the most amazing Mexican films in many a year...The Violin is filmmaking in its purest form. The debut film by Francisco Vargas moves us with its lyricism and shakes us with its honesty. A film that's moving, urgent and necessary."
    Guillermo del Toro, Director of Pan's Labyrinth
  • Highest Rating
    "A message this political has rarely been delivered in so poetic a form."
    Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
  • Highest Rating
    "A terrific debut by Vargas, who wrote, directed and produced."
    Anthony Quinn, Independent (UK)
  • Highest Rating
    "The Violin is so beautiful to look at, it almost wouldn't matter if it had a story. But it has one, and it's riveting."
    Chris Hewitt, St. Paul Pioneer Press
  • Highest Rating
    "The tiny, tough, sneakily moving film The Violin wears its revolutionary romanticism on its sleeve, not far from its gun."
    Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
  • Highest Rating
    "A movie of undeniable gravitas and monumentality...."
    J. Hoberman, Village Voice
  • Highest Rating
    "Once the political lines are drawn, Vargas' film becomes richly layered, and builds with greater and greater tension toward its harrowing, inevitable finale."
    Katey Rich, Film Journal International

Awards & Recognition

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