Postales: Film Review

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The language and cultural barrier is nicely broken in this warm film of innocent romance between a Peruvian street kid and a pre-teen U.S. tourist girl. Playing here to enthusiastic reception at the 13th Annual RiverRun International Film Festival, Postales (Postcards) should deliver on the festival circuit and would be a worthy selection for discerning viewers on VOD.

Perceptively written and compactly visualized by writer/director Josh Hyde, Postales, is a delicate but spry yarn of multi-cultural connection. Set in the tiny Peruvian tourist village of Cuzco – a gateway to Machu Picchu – Postalesinter weaves the daily scrappy hustles of a Peruvian boy, Pablo, and Mary, the observant younger daughter of a vacationing U.S. family. Pablo peddles postcards to the tourists and crosses paths with the family in his daily hustle.

Filmmaker Hyde's clever and compassionate narrative contrasts the subsistence lives of the villagers, who are eking out a living through the scraps of the tourists, and the well-heeled visitors. It's buttressed by a solid plotline rooted in the chasm between villagers and visitors. Best, it's a smartly realized human story that makes no didactic pronouncements as its themes percolate through the motivations and needs of the individual characters.

Told with spare assurance and scoped with a radiant eye, Postales' message is both kindly and engaging. Under Hyde's Truffaut-like hand, the performances are ripe and apt. Guimel Soria Martinez is both sympathetic and cagey as Pablo, while Nadia Alexander is innocently appealing as the open-minded young girl.

As Mary's twittering older-sister, Megan Tusing bursts with adolescent conflicts, while Ed Trucco and Annie Kozuch are well-cast as the well-heeled American couple.

Special praises to cinematographer Dan Fischer for the glowing tones and telling compositions and to editor Evan Smith for the lively and gentle cadence.

Venue: RiverRun International Film Festival

Production: lofu

Cast: Guimel Soria Martinez, Nadia Alexander, Alan Cuba, Megan Tusing, Ed Trucco, Annie Kozuch, Humberto Chaparro

Director/screenwriter: Josh Hyde

Producers:  Claire Connelly, Dan Fischer, P. Fishwick, Maxi Holland

Director of photography: Dan Fischer

Production designer:  Christian Chaufa Bustamante

Music:  Michael Deller

Costume designers: Christian Bustamante Editor: Evan Smith

Unrated, 80 minutes