The Sea of Lost Time

1976, 35 mm, colour, 85 Min

Fiction based on a short story by Gabriel García Márquez

Script, Direction and Executive Production: Solveig Hoogesteijn

Director of Photography: Andrés Agusti

Music: Victor Cuica

Sound: Christopher Price

Editing: Bronwen Sennish

Scenography: José “Enano” Rodriguez

Production companies: Bayerischer Rundfunk, Germany and Macu Films,

THE STORY:

A town without a name, detained in the time of poverty, bathed by a cruel sea, which empties thick garbage onto the streets. The lack and the collective imagination trigger the miracle: one night the sea exhales a perfume of roses. This smell, child of desire, the fantastic and the magical, drenched by a sense of humor and irony, transforms everyone’s life. It attracts tourists, pills and miracles sellers, fortune tellers and a circus. The exaggeration converts the ordinary into the extraordinary. A Cadillac arrives on a fragile raft without a helmsman. Finally, the smell attracts Mister Herbert, the richest man on earth, who distributes his money to solve the problems of humanity, generating a mirage of bonanza and happiness. But he leaves with a fortune greater than the one he had brought, leaving a more devastating void, a metaphor for the Latin American reality of the banana era and the cyclical time of our countries.

AWARDS:

  • Second Coral Award for Best Feature Film
  • International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana, 1981
  • Best Photography, Mérida National Film Festival, 1982
  • Honorary Makhila, Ibero-American Film Festival, Biarritz, 1981
  • Screenplay Award, Promotion of Young Cinema, Bonn, 1975
  • “Prädikat Wertvoll” for artistic quality, German Government Award, 1976

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