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.) Created by Sachiko Uzeta, Hari Sama. Directed, compiled 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 along with a ending up in Baja whales in Hari Sama's personal, sensitively made second feature, "The Imagine Lu." Produced in a method approximately the present Mexican cinema rods of rigorous art film and aud-pleasing melodrama, pic goes to some growing humanist trend which includes Maria Novaro's "The Great Herbal treatments," also starring lead Ursula Pruneda. Slackness in midsection renders the drama under it might have been, and can pose challenging for future fest and theatrical dreams. Split into three sections recognized as "actions," the film elliptically drops the viewer in to the early grief stages of classical guitarist Lu (Pruneda), eventually revealing that her 5-year-old boy, Sebastian (Emiliano Magana), has died of the cerebral aneurysm. Taking meds and blankly looking the window of her cozy family room, Lu seems uncertain how to proceed next, together with her mother and her friend Laura (Maria del Carmen Farias) aiding in each and every way they are able to and advocating her to go to group periods for grieving parents. These events lend Sama's script a welcome dose of humor in addition to a way to construct expository material, to ensure that the viewer can more carefully experience Lu's gradual emotional thaw. Thing about this process includes awkward conferences together with her concerned brothers and sisters, none who plays huge inside a film that, oddly enough, consists of not really a single bad person. Unfolding much more gradually is Lu's decision to get her guitar again, among her co-workers nudges her to go over a composition written together with her in your mind. The tipping point toward Lu's final phase of healing posseses an extended encounter with oceanographer Malik (Gerardo Trejoluna), inside a development that the more melodramatic film might have spun into emotional warfare. However in Sama's gentle hands, it might be the beginning of a reconciliation that finishes inside a third act occur Baja's stunning Ocean of Cortez region. Title describes Lu's fantasy that Sebastian could see and touch the big whales he never was in a position to in existence actual filming of whales with stars reps a remarkable task. As with "The Great Herbal treatments," Pruneda projects an amiable earth-mother presence that, even just in the pic's saddest passages, gives the storyline a warm glow. Her performance is made on Lu's step-by-step go back to everyday existence, also it never feels mannered her final scene particularly packs an unpredicted wallop. Production package is professional but never too clever, though editing of some sluggish middle passages might be sharp. Pic won a unique mention from Morelia's Mexican competition jury.Camera (color), Emiliano Villanueva editor, Sama, Mario Sandoval music, Dario Gonzalez production designer, Maria Paz Gonzalez seem (Dolby Digital), Pablo Tamez, Pedro Mejia seem 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 range newsroom at news@variety.com