As he is about to leave Viña del Mar, his hometown, Javier begins filming gardens without quite knowing what he is looking for. For eight years, each time he returns, he explores trees, plants, and landscapes, composing a visual essay in which avocado trees, palm trees, and roses coexist with fairy tales, colonial ghosts, and the class conflicts that run through the heart of his own family.
Javier Zoro ('Mapamundi', 2012) constructs his own garden-film from his family's history, delving into the contradictions of Viña del Mar, a city marked since its founding by aristocratic social climbing and a persistent notion of distinction. From this starting point, the film moves into more hostile territories, where social divisions take on new contours.
“Almost Punta del Este, almost Biarritz, almost Acapulco,” wrote Pedro Lemebel about the seaside resort. The phrase could serve as a password for this free-flowing and digressive essay, filled with quotations (from botanists to writers) and an ironic poem by Anne Sexton as its grand finale. Among gardens, princesses, and toads, Zoro transforms his own family into a map of belonging, differences, and identities. The film unfolds with humor reminiscent of the films of Alan Berliner and Ross McElwee, reflection, and a touch of delirium, never losing sight of the fact that this is also a “city symphony.”.
The documentary will also be a curious surprise for viewers of Rodrigo Moreno's "Los delincuentes," where Zoro plays a director who films gardens. In this case, any resemblance to reality is not purely coincidental.
Andrés Nazarala R., FIDOCS 30 programmer
Javier Zoro (1984, Viña del Mar, Chile) studied Philosophy at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso and Documentary Filmmaking at the Chilean Film School. He is the screenwriter and director of the short films 'En torno al reloj' (2009) and 'Una cama' (2014). His debut feature film is the documentary 'Mapamundi' (2013). He acted in the Argentine film 'Los delincuentes' (2023) by Rodrigo Moreno, where he plays a Chilean director making a film about gardens. 'Ciudad jardín' is that film.