Francisco Javier Gutiérrez lives in Los Angeles, where he works directing large productions such as Rings (2017). The director from Córdoba went to Hollywood after the success of 3 days (2008) and is delighted, but there is something very constricted in those big productions: “I like to make personal cinema, that breaks the rules and that cannot be done by directing the big Hollywood franchises.
So Gutiérrez returned to Spain, although only temporarily, to film a very personal film, The Wait, a rural thriller that has raved about Sitges. Eladio (Víctor Clavijo) is the caretaker of a Sevillian farmhouse in the 70s. Greed leads him to lose what he loves most and that allows the director to put on the table a reflection about “values, guilt, human nature.” , the errors of the past, education, the symbology of original sin and the relationships between the landowner and the employee.
The wait moves between the rural drama, reminiscent of The Holy Innocents, the psychological story and the fantastic and has a great asset: the performance of its protagonist, Víctor Clavijo, who gives life to Eladio who, little by little, becomes He becomes brutalized, tormented by a feeling of guilt.
Clavijo already sounds like a possible winner of the acting prize in this contest and the truth is that he has worked hard, because Gutiérrez, who had already worked with him in 3 days, did not make it easy for him: “The complexity of the role required a lot effort, but he also had to lose weight, grow a beard, change the tone of voice and learn the accent and, as if that were not enough, go through a process to understand loneliness: Víctor, who is very urban, had to lock himself in a farmhouse in “Seville in the middle of July without any company.”
