Cinema
The Call of the Oboe
O toque do oboé
Claudio MacDowell · 1998
Synopsis
A declining town in Latin America, where funerals follow one another and the inhabitants live in apathy. Augusto, a Brazilian musician with an incurable heart condition, arrives there by train. Aurora, who runs an abandoned cinema, asks him to accompany on the oboe the silent films forgotten in the projection booth; he hesitates, then accepts. As soon as his music accompanies the screenings, strange phenomena spread through the town, loves, jealousies and unexpected awakenings, while a bond forms between Augusto and Aurora.
Context
The film was shot in 1996 and 1997 in three towns in Paraguay, Piribebuy, Pirayú and Paraguarí, as a Brazil-Paraguay co-production, with Brazilian, Paraguayan and Argentine performers. The story is by the director and Hugo Gamarra, one of the founders of the Paraguayan cinematheque; the screenplay is by Joaquim Assis, the music by Wagner Tiso, the cinematography by Toca Seabra. Shown first at the São Paulo Mostra, it then circulated in festivals, from Havana to Toulouse, Chicago, Pesaro and Sydney, and was shown in Los Angeles in October 1999.
Who it is for
About two hours. It is worth knowing that the old silent films shown in the cinema count in the story as much as the oboe that accompanies them.
Prizes and reception
Best supporting actor award for the Argentine Mario Lozano at the Gramado festival, and several other awards abroad.
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