Jaime

Jaime appears alone on the screen to talk about himself. He lives with a mental disorder, as a result of which he perceives reality in a different, distorted way. On screen, he addresses his childhood, his desires, his strong religious faith and his inner voices. A woman – perhaps his mother – is there sometimes to comfort and cuddle him. Constructed from a series of conversations between Francisco Javier Rodriguez and Jaime Saldaña, a 33-year-old living with mental issues, the film is a bold attempt to portray a psychiatric condition on screen: from the very beginning of the film, our capacity to discern reality from mise en scène, facts from fiction, is challenged in a very subtle, yet uncanny way. By doing so, the director invites us to take the point of view of his protagonist, in a film that is a participatory experience more than a simple portrait. With economical means and an unassailable trust in cinema as a magical mirror, Jaime invites us to question our idea of reality.

Rebecca De Pas