Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: CANDELA [Miami International Film Festival 2022 - Virtual]
Moving storylines in a parallel structure without repetition can be a tricky approach but using a novel as a basis and keeping to that idea can be challenging. "Candela" [US Premiere] uses its structure to an interesting endpoint. Candela as a character is a beacon at a local nightclub in the Dominican Republic, a bright spot of incandescent (but perhaps false) hope in a crumbling town as a Hurricane Gustaf is barreling towards landfall. The film actually begins by following Sera, a party girl whose penchant for danger melds with her attraction to that which she cannot possess. At the inset this seems the story to follow. With its neon facade, the notion of the demon directive seems the most enticing and diametric. When she attracts a stranger per se whom she knows in a way back to her apartment, there is a Scarface reversal of power that is quite dynamic but the chapter doesn't allow it to become that story.
That said, Sera's approach to destruction is an interesting one. It intertwines on the periphery with Lt. Perez, a police investigator whose is neither corrupt per se but not clean either. His interaction with a intriguing lady actually reflects the most interesting theme and social commentary in the film especially when director Andrés Farías Cintrón uses a larger specter to speak to a bigger psychological construct. It is both tragic and yet inevitable, a person stuck between the ceiling and limbo. While it is not overly explained, the use of a unique icon per se builds up the mythology even more, even though it is perhaps not used to its full potential. The third chapter brings the story of the three sides of this disjointed triangle to a point and deconstructsit in a beautiful and yet tragic way which brings it back to the grounded reality. "Candela" doesn't try to redeem its characters, it just lets them be in a way that is true to their form, their geography and their own personal disasters that await them. B+
By Tim Wassberg
