In a dystopian overcast Lima, which has not seen rainfall in many years, an inventor, Luis (Fernando Bacilio) and his young son Teo (Lorenzo Molina) work on building a machine to create rain. However, tension builds between the two when Teo joins a criminal gang to earn more money to prevent the father and son from being evicted from their flat.
Director Victor Manuel Cheva keeps things atmospheric on a low budget, with the depiction of Lima’s dystopian future society shown simply through the use of analogue technology such as payphones and bulky generators, as well as the Brutalist architecture of Luis and Teo’s apartment block. In addition, Cheva and co-writer Victor Huizar make effective use of world-building and character development without the use of extensive dialogue.
In particular, Teo earning money through his work for the gang and the resulting effect this has on his relationship with his father is shown to the audience without the need to spell out the obvious narrative and character progression that ensues. This changing familial dynamic is something that would be much more foregrounded in a mainstream retelling of this narrative, yet Cheva ensures that it doesn’t overshadow the other stylistic and narrative elements of the film.
In addition, Fergan Chavez-Ferrer‘s cinematography makes impressive use of contrasting vivid singular colours (sickly yellow exterior shots, cool blue lights in a nightclub setting and the ominous raging red lighting of Luis’s machine) with bleaker desaturated environs.
Both Bacilio and Molina provide impressively naturalistic and subtle performances as father and son, with Bacilio effectively charting how Luis’s initial intelligence and firm parenting style devolves into a fixated obsession with completing his machine. In contrast, Molina does a great job in showing how Teo’s self-resourcefulness emerges when he is away from his father without any aspect of this development feeling false.
All of the above elements make The Shape of Things To Come an impressively-staged dystopian sci-fi film from a country little known for its cinematic work in the genre. All in all, it’s a remarkable achievement for Cheva and his cast and crew.
Screened as part of Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival