Zona sur (2009)

Zona sur centres around an upper class family living in La Paz. And it seems the best years are already lying firmly behind that family. With Bolivia being engulfed in political change as well as economic difficulties, the mother, who is divorced or at least living apart from her husband, can barely make ends meet. The family live in a luxurious house with a beautiful garden, and the mother is spoiling her three children, but she is not even able to pay her staff.

There is a clear sense of entrapment, of lack of direction. No-one in this family knows what to do with their lives, except for the youngest son Andres, who, like all small children, is blissfully ignorant and enjoys his games and childhood fantasies. His older brother is leading a hedonistic lifestyle without any idea what to do with himself. And his sister is apparently trying to find herself – within a sea of sociological and political buzzwords.

Apart from being a family portrait, Zona sur deals with two topics that Latin American filmmakers have tackled repeatedly. One is the region’s economic upheaval, and the economic decline this entails for many people in the upper and middle classes. Las Herederas would be one of the most impressive examples of recent years.
The other topic are the racial and class divides. Zona sur devotes some time and room to this, centring at times on the two staff members in this upstairs/downstairs scenario. Wilson, the butler, who also doubles as cook, is a small indigenous man, a dignified personality who manages the household without problems despite the fact that the senora cannot even give him the money to pay for the groceries. The indigenous maid, Marcelina, tries to not only keep the house in order but also the garden. She seems rather naive and very much unlike Wilson. She loves Andres, but otherwise does not seem to be emotionally too invested in the family; Wilson, on the other hand seems inseparable from the family. He has his own family in his native village, but seems to have little contact and no real inclination to see his wife more often. It is Wilson in whom we see played out the difficult Schödinger’s-cat situation such a long-time employee can find themselves in: part of the family, and yet not part of the family. While this pardoxon is only one of several themes in this film, it is undeniably part of the social structure of this set of characters. It is the same paradoxon that is central to films like La Nana and The Watchman.

The film’s atmosphere is deceptively harmless, but there is at all times a sense of stagnation and a sense of dread. An underlying fear for the future. And the film at times plays with images of isolation and entrapment, turning the open, light-flooded house into a cage.
Unfortunately, it is not just the characters who lack a sense of purpose and a sense of direction. The film does as well. The story, such as it is, goes nowhere. And for an arthouse piece that centres around its characters, the film does surprisingly little to actually allow us to really get to know them. The characters talk a lot but say very little. And while this is a deliberate tool to show the emptiness and aimlessness of these characters’ lives, it rubs off on the film as a whole.

In the end, however, there will be an offer that might serve as the impetus for everyone to move forward. So this film with its stagnant atmosphere, an atmosphere of a decay that is never stopped but only postponed, ends on a subdued, tentatively optimistic note.

All in all, Zona sur might best be described as a melancholic swansong of a certain way of life.

The cinematography by Paul de Lumen – while being at times a tool used to emphasise the family members’ isolation – is often lush and heightens the elegance of the house’s architecture and décor as well as the vibrant nature of the garden. And in general, the film’s set design, costumes, etc., all show a lot of work and love for detail.

Zona sur was written and directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia, who won both those categories at the Sundance films festival. In addition, the film was selected as Bolivia’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film nomination process for the 2010 Academy Awards. I have contradictory information regarding the film’s English-language title. In the US, it seems to have only been shown at festivals while it apparently did get a theatrical release in the UK, and maybe this is part of the confusion: I saw both “Southern District” and “Southern Zone” mentioned as English-language titles.

In the end, the film suffers from its vague aimlessness, which becomes a weakness far more than a style element. Or, in software terms: it’s a bug, not a feature. So while I regard Zona sur as a solid film and would rate it at around 6 out of 10, I am not sure I can actually recommend it.