10th edition CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

FILMS 2024:  Caribbean Focus | Feature Films | Short Films | Yellow Robin Award Nominees
FILMS 2019: A – E | F – L | M – P | Q – S | T –  Z | Feature Film | Short Film
FILMS 2018: A – E | F – L | M – P | Q – S | T –  Z | Feature Film | Short Film
FILMS 2017: A – E | F – L | M – P | Q – S | T –  Z | Feature Film | Short Film
FILMS 2016: A – E | F – L | M – P | Q – S | T –  Z | Feature Film | Short Film
FILMS 2015: A – E | F – L | M – P | Q – S | T –  Z | Feature Film | Short Film

Oso polar (Polar Bear) (2018 Feature Film)

Marcelo TOBAR | Mexico | 2017 | color | DCP | 70′ | Spanish | e.s.

When Heriberto picks up his former classmates Trujilo and Flor en route to a school reunion, memories of the first few years at school gradually emerge. On the surface a brief road movie to a suburb of Mexico City, Polar Bear soon proves to be a painful journey into the past.

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The reunion of long-separated individuals can lead to beautiful moments. However, reunions almost always go wrong in films. Mild-mannered Heriberto is looking forward to his school reunion even if the atmosphere turns awkward the instant he picks up slick Trujillo and a little later the beautiful Flor who – unfortunately – can’t stay off the bottle while they’re driving. The trio are en route to a suburb of Mexico City, but they are having trouble getting there because of Heriberto’s ramshackle car and his passengers’ unscheduled excursions. It gets truly painful when their mutual history gradually comes to the surface.

In the first Mexican film shot on an iPhone, director Marcelo Tobar alternates between past and present with flashbacks to Heriberto’s experiences at the seminary where, in recent years, he was studying to be a priest. There too, Heriberto proved unable to forget his traumatic schooldays.

Winner Best Mexican Feature Award at Morelia International Film Festival 2017. International premiere

Place: The Cinemas 5

Date: 12 April 2018

Time: 19:45

Duration: 1:03

Place: The Cinemas 5

Date: 13 April 2018

Time: 17:00

Duration: 1:03

Place: The Cinemas 3

Date: 14 April 2018

Time: 15:00

Duration: 1:03

Year in
Festival

2018

Director

Marcelo TOBAR

Camera

Mauricio Novelo

Cast

Humberto Busto
Verónica Toussaint
Cristian Magaloni
Harold Torres
Fernando Álvarez Rebeil
Luis Alberti
Marcelo Ceron

Country

Mexico

Editor

Patrick Danse

Language

Spanish

Length

70′

Music

Adán Herrera

Producer

Elsa Reyes
Marcelo Tobar

Production Company

Zensky Cine
La Torre y el Mar

Production Design

Karen Torres

Sales

Luz verde / Lucero Garzón

Scenario

Marcelo Tobar

Sound Design

Emilio Cortés

Year of Production

2017

Na zijn opleiding aan de Vancouver Film School schreef, regisseerde en produceerde Marcelo TOBAR (1977, Mexico) drie onafhankelijke films. Zowel Asteroide (2015) als Oso polar (2017) wonnen diverse prijzen op internationale festivals. Op het Morelia International Film Festival kende de jury onder leiding van de Hongaarse regisseur Béla Tarr Oso polar de prijs voor Beste Film toe. 

 

Filmography

Dos mil metros (sobre el nivel del mar)/2000 Meters (Above Sea Level) (2008), Asteroide/Asteroid (2015), Oso polar/Polar Bear (2017)