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Quemar las Naves

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Synopsis

A teenage boy’s sexual awakening adds fuel to the fire in this tumultuous coming-of-age drama from Mexico.

Review

Teen siblings Helena (Irene Azuela) and Sebastian (Angel Onésimo Nevares) are thick as thieves, living in a grand yet decrepit home with their ailing mother and a maid. But when mom finally succumbs to cancer, the house and its scant residents fall into true disorder. Sebastian falls for high school bad boy Juan, while Helena grows closer to a rich boy, Ismael, who may hold an attraction for Sebastian, despite having a girlfriend. But it’s the relationship between Sebastian and his sister that really heats up, crossing the line into incestuous. As their friends, the maid and a new boarder -- Ismael’s ping-pong enthusiast girlfriend -- get sucked into the drama and sexual experimentation, the siblings are ultimately forced to burn a few bridges to create new, independent paths for themselves. At times bearing similarities to Ian McKewan’s The Cement Garden, Burn The Bridges is a tremendous feature debut from director Francisco Franco. While dramatic and at times a little shocking -- for instance, Sebastian cruises and hooks up with degenerate characters -- off-kilter humor leavens the mood, and performances are fantastic across the board (Azuela snagged an Ariel Award -- Mexico's Oscar -- for best actress). (Spanish with English subtitles)

-- Lawrence Ferber

Product Format Information

DVD : $15.49

Availability: In stock and ready to ship
Region Code: 1
UPC: 876122001955
Catalog #: DV2796672

Studio : Distrimax

Languages: Spanish (Primary) , English Subtitles

Keywords

Family Life, Gay Male, Gay/Lesbian, Incest, International, Latino/Latina, Urban Lifestyle

Genres

Drama, International

Customer Reviews

A Family

Amos Lassen wrote on 02/24/2009:

“Quemar Las Naves” (“Burn the Bridges”)

A Family

Amos Lassen

Francisco Franco’s “Quemar Las Naves” looks at a family of three: Eugenia (Claudette Maille), the mother, a former pop singer dying of cancer, Helena (Irene Azuela), her 19 year old daughter who wants to travel the world and become a singer like her mother and Sebastian (Angel Onesimo Nevares) who studies and plays classical music and has the desire to do little more than to move to the beach. The three are stuck somewhere between desire, death and dreams of the future.
Sebastian and Helena develop a special love for each other as they care for their dying mother yet Sebastian also feels sexually drawn to a boy at school. There is tension as well between brother and sister since Helena stays at home caring for her mother while Sebastian can go where he wants and even find a human connection away from home. In this case it is with Juan, the new boy at school. Helena becomes jealous and things at home explode after the death of Eugenia and the future of the family house becomes uncertain.
Into the picture comes Ismael with his repressed desire for Sebastian and Aurora who rents a room in the house. We are given a look at the strange nature of the family as well as the powerful position held by the youngest male and his yen for freedom in a place that is devoutly Catholic.
Every cliché in film appears here—incest, homosexuality, the broken family, abuse and death but Franco handles everything in a way so that it all appears brand new. The plot is not bogged down by these clichés because the performances are all so brilliant. The film glows with beauty and Azuela gives an Oscar worthy performance. This probably could have lapsed into black comedy; Franco guides his film to be a true highlight of Mexican cinema. Because we are never quite sure where the movie is going, we are interested throughout.