El Huaso

Year: 2012
Country: CANADA, CHILE
Run Time: 78 minutes

This beautifully shot documentary chronicles the family members of director Carlo Guillermo Proto as they grapple with the decision of their father to end his own life. The director's father, Gustavo, is haunted by the memory of his own father's suicide as he battles a looming onslaught of Alzheimer's disease and the accompanying dementia. Including intense interviews with Carlo, his siblings, and their mother, EL HUASO takes you deep into the torment and tug-of-war emotions the members of Gustavo's family struggle with while their patriarch contemplates taking his own life to ease their burden. Carlo's own intimacy with the film and his father's emotional pain is both bold and vulnerable while he tries to understand Gustavo's battle with memory loss, anxiety, and life-long bouts of depression. Gustavo himself is nearly heroic in his openness about his emotional struggles including never feeling at home in Canada where he moved his family to seek a new life. Before his plans of executing what he believes to be his fate, Gustavo travels back to his native country to fulfill his dream of becoming a "huaso," or Chilean cowboy. Skillfully put together with gorgeous, scenic shots, EL HUASO takes a difficult, brave, and often blunt approach to a heartbreaking subject and gives it extraordinary life. (In English and Spanish with subtitles) – T.W.

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