Private Project

THE VISIT

It's Isabel's birthday, and once again she will have to celebrate it in the mental institution where she is hospitalized. Isabel has been yearning to see her sister for years to vent the ghosts from a family past that torments her. Today, the visiting room will witness the meeting she has been waiting for.

  • Esteban Castaño
    Director
  • Marisol Correa
    Writer
  • Esteban Castaño
    Writer
  • Marisol Correa
    Producer
  • Marisol Correa
    Key Cast
    "Julia e Isabel"
  • Margarita Rosa Gallardo
    Key Cast
    "Nurse"
  • Luis Alexander Moreno
    Key Cast
    "Male nurse"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    LA VISITA
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes 52 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 31, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    12,200 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Colombia
  • Country of Filming:
    Colombia
  • Language:
    Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    4:3
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Esteban Castaño

Esteban Castaño is a filmmaker who graduated from the National University of Colombia with a background in Civil Engineering. He studied sound and image design at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and has participated in various national and international meetings and seminars. Among which are: the Iberoamerican Films Crossing Borders (Guadalajara, 2011), the International Meeting of Photography: Laberintos del Rostro [Labyrinths of the Face] and Paisajes de la Conciencia [Landscapes of the Conscience] (Bogotá, 2009), the Festival of Light (Buenos Aires, 2008), and the IberTalent (Valencia, 2008) where he received the prize for Creative Risk and Will of Experimentation from the Foundation Bureau.
During his professional career, he has worked as a screenwriter, director of photography, and producer. As a fiction director, he has made the short films Pésame and 23m2. The latter was selected at the Short Film Festival of Popayán (2017), the Cinetoro Festival (2017), and the Alucine Latin Film and Media Arts Festival (Toronto, 2018). He was director of photography in the documentary series Dictator in the Dock, and cameraman in the documentary 500 Years which premiered at Sundance in 2017; both projects are about the extermination of the Ixil who are a Maya people indigenous to Guatemala.
La Visita [The Visit] is his third short film as director. He is currently working on Construcción a fiction short film, and is finishing the script for his first full-length film.

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Director Statement

La Visita [The Visit] is a short film about the need to forgive, and how that need serves as an outlet for the silence that exists between two people who once loved each other and at some point really hurt one another.
In the midst of a place as cold and distant as a mental hospital, a meeting emerges that appears to be between Isabel and Julia—two sisters distanced by family conflict. The short film aims to achieve an emotional journey through the two main characters that will be played by the same actress.
Inspired by the sequence "Cousins" from the series Coffee and Cigarettes (Jim Jarmusch), we took on technical and artistic challenges to achieve a drama film with a touch of psychological thriller. The fact that the same actress plays both characters reinforces the idea that Julia's visit is just a reflection of Isabel's own desires, just as situations and characters from daily life get mixed up with dreams. The sound design and animation have the challenge of subtly differentiating what is in Isabel's mind from what is happening in reality.
The art is inspired by the 50's to give a sense of distance to the public. The straight lines prevail over the curved to highlight the rigor of the institution. The color grading highlights the different planes of the characters. With the exception of the red color that identifies Julia, the rest of the setting is framed with a palette of cool tones. The scenography contains few elements to make the spaces look wider and thus reflecting the emptiness and loneliness that exists within the characters. This sense of wide spaces is contrasted by the use of 4:3 that seeks to generate an oppressive effect coming from the exterior that reinforces the confinement in which they live.