A Stone’s Throw Away/A Tiro de Piedra (International Competition film)

A tiro de piedra | A Stone's Throw Away

Sebastian Hiriart (Mexico, 2011). 117 mi

Jacinto is a goat-herder in a part of Mexico that looks quite desolate and inhospitable. There aren’t many other people around. His life seems quite boring and lonely. The bells the goats wear do make a nice musical clang but that’s hardly exciting. Sometimes, while looking after the goats, Jacinto falls into a reverie where he is struggling through a pine forest that’s deep in snow – he looks exhausted, like he’s on his last legs. But then he finds a large wooden box buried in the snow – a treasure chest, maybe? When he finds a keychain in the shape of a barn surrounded by trees, stamped with the name of a town in Oregon, he takes it as “a sign” that he should go there, and that’s just what he does, though not without many trials and tribulations. On the way, some people help him, and some people take advantage of him - that’s the way real life is, for many of us. Jacinto survives through a combination of good nature, stubbornness and stoicism. His jutting chin seems like the physical manifestation of hat stubbornness.

Director

Sebastián Hiriart started his film career as a child-actor. He has worked as a director, actor, photographer, and camera operator on various films and TV shows. In 2001 he attended a film workshop at New York Film Academy. A tiro de piedra is his first feature film

Story

Jacinto Medina is 21 years old and lives a simple, boring life as a shepherd in northern Mexico. He experiences visions, potentially of things to come, or an alternate life. When he finds a key with an engraved address in Oregon, USA, he is certain it is a sign and decides to leave. Driven by the urge to seek the meaning of his strange visions, he sets out on a journey to cross the US-Mexico border.

More about film

Mexico, Drama, 2010
118 min, 35mm, Color
Spanish with English subtitles

Producer: Sebastián Hiriart
Production Companies: Galopando Films
Screenwriter: Gabino Rodríguez, Sebastián Hiriart
Cinematographer: Sebastián Hiriart
Editor: Pedro Gómez García
Sound Design: Matias Barbieris, Gustavo Bellon
Music: Emiliano Motta, Emiliano Gonzalez de Leon
Cast: Jacinto Medina, Gabino Rodríguez

Some Reviews

A Stone Throw Away

A tiro de piedra

(Mexico)

By JAY WEISSBERG

With: Gabino Rodriguez, Monserrat Angeles, Rogelio Medina, Alejandra Espana, Julian Silva, Randy Watkins, Janice Reese. (Spanish, English dialogue)

A Galopando Cine production, in collaboration with Verde Espina Studios. Produced by Ximena Hiriart, Sebastian Hiriart. Directed by Sebastian Hiriart. Screenplay, Gabino Rodriguez, Sebastian Hiriart.

A Mexican hick with only a dream to go on wends his way to Oregon in Sebastian Hiriart's debut feature, "A Stone Throw Away." Well made on a shoestring, the pic says nothing new about the illegal-immigrant experience, though the current debate on the topic could offer platforms for exploitation. Still, given the large number of well-worn situations here, Hiriart needs to engage more thoughtfully with the question: Is a cliche still valid film fodder when it reflects the truth? While programmers throw that one about, "A Stone" is likely to roll around south-of-the-border sidebars.

Shepherd Jacinto (Gabino Rodriguez, "Perpetuum Mobile") is bored with herding goats in the arid scrub of central San Luis Potosi state. He finds an incongruous 4-H Club Oregon keychain and takes it as a sign that his dream, of uncovering treasure in a snowbound forest, will come true. Stealing money from his sympathetic uncle, Jacinto embarks on the journey north; he gets robbed, enjoys the company of a kind-hearted prostitute and encounters the usual assortment of well-meaning folk and scam artists. Good framing and solid lensing, plus Rodriguez's thesping strengths, hold interest.

Camera (color, HD-to-35mm), Hiriart; editor, Pedro G. Garcia; music, Emiliano Motta, Emiliano Gonzalez de Leon. Reviewed at San Sebastian Film Festival (Latin Horizons), Sept. 19, 2010. Running time: 94 MIN.