Cocote
Item
Title / Título (Original)
Cocote
Director
Release Date / Fecha de estreno
2017
Language / Idioma
Spanish / español
Country / País
Production Company / Compañía de Producción
Guasábara Cine (Dominican Republic)
Nabis Filmgroup (Argentina)
Pandora Film (Germany)
Nabis Filmgroup (Argentina)
Pandora Film (Germany)
Description / Descripción
Alberto is returning home from Santo Domingo for the funeral of his father, killed by a local loan shark who is untouchable thanks to his police-force position. The son arrives to find that his old man has already been put in the ground. He is expected to stay on, however, for the nine nights of novena, or rezos de los nueve dias, a prospect that disturbs him, though it’s not immediately clear why. In time we gather that there is a gulf between Alberto’s faith and his family’s – while both evoke the name of Jesus, the similarities don’t go much further. With his pressed white shirts, humble comportment and Bible tucked at his side, Alberto is the very picture of the clean-living evangelical, dismissing talk of a curse on his father as so much “nonsense”. But back home they practise their own indigenous strain of Christianity, one heavily streaked with Catholic pomp and influences from West Africa, known as Los Misterios. At the centre of Cocote is this push-pull between Alberto’s Christianity, of the pacific and turn-the-other-cheek variety, and the more fervid, half-pagan beliefs of his extended family, particularly his adoptive sister Karina (Judith Rodríguez), in whose minds the crime that has been committed demands repayment in blood. Source: Pinkerton, Nick. "Cocote." Sight and Sound, vol. 28, no. 8, 2018, p. 54-55.
Alberto regresa a su casa de Santo Domingo para el funeral de su padre, quien fue asesinado por un prestamista que también es un policía e inmune al juicio. Cuando el hijo llega, se entera que su padre ya está enterrado. Se queda en casa para los rezos de nueve dias, lo cual lo pertuba por una razón que no está claro de inmediato. El espectador aprende que existen unas diferencias entre la fe de Alberto y la fe de su familia; ambos siguen a Jesús pero lo interpretan de manera diferente. Alberto es un evangélico humilde quien lee la biblia y no cree en la supuesta maldición de su padre. Pero su familia cree en Los Misterios, un cristianismo indígena con elementos del catolicismo e influencias de África occidental. El tema central de Cocote es este conflicto entre el cristianismo pacifista de Alberto y el cristianismo medio pagano fervoroso de su familia, especialmente en el caso de su hermana adoptiva Karina (Judith Rodríguez), quien cree que el asesinato de su padre exige una venganza de sangre. (Translated by Andrew Magel)
Category / Categoría
Genre / Género
Subject Coverage / Tema
Cinematic Period / Periodo cinematográfico
Collection
Citation
“Cocote,” Cinegogía, accessed April 28, 2024, https://cinegogia.omeka.net/items/show/455.