Pablo César

Pablo César (pronounced [ˈpaβlo ˈsesaɾ]; born 26 February 1962) is an Argentine film director, film producer, screenwriter and film professor. He began his filmmaking career in the Buenos Aires independent short film scene shot in the Super 8 format, making more than twenty works between the 1970s and 1980s, among which Del génesis (1980), Ecce civitas nostra (1984)—co-directed with Jorge Polaco—and Memorias de un loco (1985) stand out. In 1983, César directed his first feature film De las caras del espejo, shot in Super-8. He turned to the 35 mm film format from his second feature onwards, La sagrada familia (1988), an ironic film that works as a critique of the abuse of power, as well as an allegory of the era of the last civic-military dictatorship in Argentina.César has been a pioneer in developing co-productions between his country and nations in Africa and South Asia. He is the first Argentine director to film co-productions with India, and the only Latin American filmmaker who has directed co-productions with African countries, among them Tunisia, Benin, Mali, Angola, Namibia, Ethiopia, Morocco and Ivory Coast. His first co-productions were the so-called "trilogy of triumphs", inspired by ancient Sufi poems and texts on different mythologies. It is formed by the films Equinoccio, el jardín de las rosas (1991), Unicornio, el jardín de las frutas (1996) and Afrodita, el jardín de los perfumes (1998), filmed in Tunisia, India and Mali, respectively.In 1994, he released Fuego gris, a film with no dialogues that features 17 original compositions by Luis Alberto Spinetta, the only soundtrack in the musician's career. It was followed by the films Sangre (2003)—in which he veered towards a more realistic and autobiographical style— and Hunabkú (2007), shot in El Calafate and the Perito Moreno glacier. César continued to make co-productions on the African continent throughout the 2010s, filming Orillas (2011) in Benin, Los dioses del agua (2014) in Angola and Ethiopia, El cielo escondido (2016) in Namibia, and El llamado del desierto (2018) in Morocco. His film Pensando en él (2018) was the second co-production between Argentina and India, and depicts the meeting between Rabindranath Tagore and Victoria Ocampo in 1924. In 2020 he released El día del pez—the first co-production between Argentina and Ivory Coast—which closes a trilogy formed together with Los dioses de agua and El cielo escondido. His most recent film is the documentary Macongo, la Córdoba africana (2023), in which he explores the African roots in the Argentine province of Córdoba. César is currently in post-production on two films shot in 2023: Historia de dos guerreros, a love story between two men in the world of mixed martial arts, and Después del final, biopic about artist and gallery owner Luz Castillo.César's work—entirely produced in film format— is considered an exponent of independent and auteur cinema, characterized by its poetic, symbolic and contemplative use of the cinematographic language. The content of his films is influenced by his studies on the mythology, ethnology and ethnography of various countries, exploring themes such as postcolonialism, the legacy of African philosophy and cosmogony, the ties between the East and the West, the impact of the Afro-descendant community in Argentina, and the challenging of the traditional representations of Africa and India. In 2023, Página/12 described him as the "only Latin American film director who has dedicated more than 20 years to dealing with African themes." César is a proponent of the so-called "South-South Cooperation" (Spanish: Cooperación Sur-Sur), promoting modes of production, distribution and dissemination of films from the Global South that contrast with the mainstream trends. He has been awarded at various film festivals throughout his career, including the BFI London Film Festival, the Huy Film Festival, the Figueira da Foz International Film Festival, the Amiens International Film Festival, and the NiFF Houston Int'l Film Festival. He has been a jury member of several international festivals, including the International Film Festival of India (in 2007 and 2021), the Kélibia International Film Festival, the Carthage Film Festival, the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, the Amiens International Film Festival and Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma. César has been a university professor at Buenos Aires' Universidad del Cine since 1992, being one of the first teachers of the institution.