About
Synopsis
Inequality, injustice and the demands of the world we live in cause stress and depression for many people. Some of them, however, explode. This is a movie about those people.
Vulnerable in the face of a reality that shifts and suddenly turns unpredictable, the characters of Wild Tales cross the thin line that divides civilization and barbarism. A lover's betrayal, a return to the repressed past and the violence woven into everyday encounters drive the characters to madness as they cede to the undeniable pleasure of losing control.
Director's Note
These tales sprang from the most unrestrained corners of the imagination. While I was working to develop other projects – often dispirited by the fact that they were impossible to realize – I began writing a series of short stories to vent my frustrations. When I put them together in one volume, I realized that they were connected by a series of themes that provided unity and coherence: they were all about catharsis, vengeance and destruction. And the undeniable pleasure of losing control.
I frequently think of Western capitalist society as a sort of transparent cage that reduces our sensitivity and distorts our bonds with others. Wild Tales presents a group of individuals who live within this cage without being aware of its existence. But at that point where most of us would repress – or get depressed – these people shift into gear.
This involuntary project came together so quickly that it rose on my list of priorities and found a framework for production. The telling of multiple stories represented an act of liberation for me, because it brought me back to falling in love with reading. I remember it as if it were yesterday: discovering in the family library a set of fiction anthologies that got my attention: Tales by the Masters of Crime, Tales by the Master of Mystery, and Tales by the Masters of Terror. Later would come "Amazing Stories" (produced by Spielberg), "New York Stories" (by Scorsese, Coppola and Woody Allen) and J.D. Salinger's "Nine Stories". The paths that all of these works forged in my consciousness configured my current space for creative liberty and experimentation.
- Damián Szifron
About the Director
Born July 9, 1975 in Ramos Mejía, province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Szifron did media studies at ORT high school, studying film theory with Ángel Faretta, a mythic film critic at Revista Fierro. He later went on to get a degree in film studies at the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires.
From 2002 to 2003, he produced, wrote and directed two seasons of the award-winning series Los Simuladores, a show with record audience ratings for a fiction series. Sony International acquired the international rights for the story and has produced versions in Mexico, Chile, Russia and Spain.
In 2003, he presented his first film, "The Bottom of the Sea", at the International Mar del Plata Film Festival. This black comedy won the Silver Ombu award for the best Latin American film and the FIPRESCI prize; it also received a special mention from the jury at the San Sebastian Festival; the critic's award at the Toulouse Latin American Film Festival; the best script prize at the Brasilia International Film Festival; and the best first feature award at the Lleida Latin American Film Festival. In 2005, he wrote and directed "Tiempo de valientes", a police comedy that was lauded by the critics and a hit with audiences in both Argentina and Spain, garnering several national and international awards. In 2006, he wrote and directed the television series "Hermanos & Detectives". To date, there have been versions of the series in Spain, Mexico, Chile, Italy, Turkey and Russia.
In 2008, he created Big Bang, a production company that develops ideas, formats and scripts for film and television projects. After "Wild Tales", Szifron is planning to shoot "The Perfect Couple" (a love story), "The Foreigner" (an ambitious science fiction tale) and "Little Bee", an English language Western.
