The Voices from Latin America section is a surprise for the movie lovers this year. Latin America refers to both Central and South American countries, where Spanish is the official language with the exception of Portuguese-speaking Brazil. My personal impression is that the Central American people resemble the Taiwanese the most, for we share similar living habits and are optimistic in our values.

Of the 12 feature films in this section, Mexican films account for five, actually seven if co-productions are counted, too. Most of the films are made in the past year by young directors. Suffice it to say that the number of films makes it possible to draw observations about recent Mexican cinema and to feel the agitated energy. In addition, the section has two works from Peru, THE MILK OF SORROW, the closing film of TaipeiFF, and DIOSES(meaning gods), which captures the flamboyance and the emptiness of the upper-class world. The Uruguayan ACNE is a comic drama about a teenaged Jewish lad’s quest for his first kiss. Taipei will also get to see the first feature film from the Bahamas, RAIN, an inspiring story about a 14-year-old girl who leaves home to look for her estranged mother after the death of her grandmother.

Though under the giant shadow of its big and powerful neighbor, the United States, Mexican cinema has successfully preserved the unique appeal of its culture and has manifested a strange surrealism, leaving a lot of room for imagination. Optimism, simplicity and folk religion, too, all play out in Mexican films.

Most of the featured Latin American directors were born in the 1980s. Young though they may be, they actually give an overall impression of maturity, showing diversity in choice of subjects and styles. The new generation of directors can be said to have the advantage of full control of image quality, full of possibilities, lifting the Latin American veil of mystery and turning around what is otherwise the stereotype given Latin America by the world at large.

By TIEN Kuo-pin