This trailer for JAUJA will swallow you up

Ever since the Lord of the Rings trilogy Viggo Mortensen has been a household name. Then he was in Australia, a movie that had most wanting to kick him out the house, down the street and into the local trailer park. So I am curious to see how he does in Jauja, a new movie by Director Lisandro Alonso (Freedom), a movie where he speaks mostly Danish as most of the characters are from, well Denmark. There is also Spanish though the movie is also set out in the desserts of Patagonia. It looks VERY arty, which explains why it was at the 2014 Cannes Film festival where it picked up the FIPRESCI Prize. It looks intriguing but I am not convinced by the tash Mortensen is donning. Here’s the synopsis and trailer.

A remote military outpost in Patagonia, 1882, during the so-called “Conquest of the Desert”, a genocidal campaign against the aboriginal population of the region. Acts of savagery abound on all sides. Captain Gunnar Dinesen has come from Denmark with his fifteen year-old daughter to take an engineering job with the Argentine army. Being the only female in the area, Ingeborg creates quite a stir among the men. She falls in love with a young soldier, and one night they run away together. When he wakes up the Captain realises what has happened and decides to venture into enemy territory to find the young couple. Jauja is the story of a man’s desperate search for his daughter, a solitary quest that takes us to a place beyond time, where the past vanishes and the future has no meaning. (C) Cinema Guild.

Looks intriguing and very, very pretty, but Patagonia really is (been there!) . Jauja also stars Diego Roman (début role), Ghita Nørby (The Inheritance) and Mariano Arce (Sangre). It’s set for a 20 March release.

Last Updated: February 20, 2015