Film info: Tren Paraguay
Film Information
Original Title | Tren Paraguay |
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English Title | Paraguayan Train |
Director | Mauricio Rial Banti |
Countrys | ![]() ![]() |
Year | 2011 |
Format | HD |
Colour | Color |
Duration | 64 min |
Production:
- G: Mauricio Rial Banti
- F: Luis Reggiardo
- E: Anita Remón
- P: Gabriela Cueto, Mauricio Rial Banti
Synopsis
Created in 1861, the Paraguayan railroad had reached a decadent condition similar to the Argentine one by the 20th century. For decades, it was run by a British company, followed by an American one; afterwards, the Government took over and left it in a state of growing abandonment, to the point where the stretch Asunción-Encarnación was shut down in the late 90s. Since then, there have been reactivation projects but the stations remain empty and the Encarnación terminal was demolished at the end of last year. Tren Paraguay is not a denounce film although it can also work as one. It has a more ambitious project: recovering the collective memory of what it used to be. A team of eight people (half Argentine, half Paraguayan) travelled along the three thousand kilometers of tracks covered by the branch line and its ramifications, filming platforms and bridges, and also talking to the locals. It’s a complex thread of images, sounds, and words that rebuilds all memories, habits, and stories. The train is gone, and its absence fills everything up. Thus, this documentary ends up acting as an invocation.
Date and Times