The Imagine Lu (El sueno p Lu)

A Catatonia Cine presentation in co-production with Te Films/Al Fondo p Callejon. (Worldwide sales: Catatonia Cine, Mexico City.) Produced by Sachiko Uzeta, Hari Sama. Directed, put together by Hari Sama.With: Ursula Pruneda, Gerardo Trejoluna, Maria del Carmen Farias, Emilio Echevarria, Moises Arizmendi, Maria Deschamps, Emiliano Magana.A mother's tragic loss triggers contemplation, conquest of grief together with a winding up in Baja whales in Hari Sama's personal, sensitively made second feature, "The Imagine Lu." Created inside a method roughly the current Mexican cinema rods of rigorous art film and aud-pleasing melodrama, pic would go to some growing humanist trend including Maria Novaro's "The Truly Amazing Herbal remedies," also starring lead Ursula Pruneda. Slackness in midsection renders the drama under it may have been, and may pose challenging for future fest and theatrical dreams. Split up into three sections acknowledged as "actions," the film elliptically drops the viewer to the early grief stages of classical guitarist Lu (Pruneda), eventually revealing that her 5-year-old boy, Sebastian (Emiliano Magana), has died from the cerebral aneurysm. Taking meds and blankly searching your window of her cozy living room, Lu appears uncertain what direction to go next, along with her mother and her friend Laura (Maria del Carmen Farias) aiding in every single way they could and promoting her to visit group periods for grieving parents. These occasions lend Sama's script a welcome dose of humor additionally to a method to construct expository material, to make sure that the viewer can more carefully experience Lu's gradual emotional thaw. Factor relating to this process includes awkward conferences along with her concerned siblings and siblings, none who plays huge in the film that, strangely enough, includes not just a single bad person. Unfolding a lot more progressively is Lu's decision to obtain her guitar again, among her co-employees nudges her to talk about a composition written along with her in your head. The tipping point toward Lu's final phase of healing carries with it an extended encounter with oceanographer Malik (Gerardo Trejoluna), in the development the more melodramatic film may have spun into emotional warfare. In Sama's gentle hands, it may be the start of a reconciliation that finishes in the third act occur Baja's stunning Sea of Cortez region. Title describes Lu's fantasy that Sebastian often see and touch the large whales he was not ever capable of around actual filming of whales with stars reps a amazing task. Just like "The Truly Amazing Herbal remedies," Pruneda projects an agreeable earth-mother presence that, during the pic's saddest passages, provides the story a warm glow. Her performance is created on Lu's step-by-step return to everyday existence, plus it never feels mannered her final scene particularly packs an unforeseen wallop. Production package is professional but never too clever, though editing of some sluggish middle passages may be sharp. Pic won a distinctive mention from Morelia's Mexican competition jury.Camera (color), Emiliano Villanueva editor, Sama, Mario Sandoval music, Dario Gonzalez production designer, Maria Paz Gonzalez appear (Dolby Digital), Pablo Tamez, Pedro Mejia appear designer, Samuel Larson animation, Organika casting, Natalia Beristain, Ursula Pruneda. Examined at Morelia Film Festival (competing), March. 19, 2011. Running time: 106 MIN. Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com