The Focus Paraguay section aims to present well-known Paraguayan films at the Festival de Málaga. The second session, which took place on Thursday the 7th of March in Hall 4 of the Cine Albéniz, screened the feature film ‘El tiempo nublado’, by the Paraguayan director Arami Ullón. It is a documentary film based on the filmmaker's relationship with her mother and starring both of them.

From a very young age, Arami looked after her mother with epilepsy and Parkinson's disease. Years later, he moved to Switzerland to try to create his own life, but his mother's health quickly deteriorated and Arami had to return to Paraguay. That is when the director knocked on the door of producer Pascal Troechslin in Switzerland and asked him to make a documentary film about the dilemma he was facing and that people face when their parents grow old: ‘what to do with their parents when they grow old and become ill’.

And in Ullón's case, in which his mother lived in Paraguay, where there is no help and the care of the elderly is exclusively the responsibility of relatives, ‘what was he supposed to do, leave his life in Switzerland and return?' This is the question asked by his friend Sebastián Peña, who was at the screening and the discussion on behalf of the director, and who took the opportunity to raise awareness of the situation faced by his friend at the time and the importance of making the people of Paraguay aware of this issue.
Peña was involved in the shooting of the film. 'It goes beyond Arami's personal situation with his mother, but rather brings to the table the situation of older people in Paraguay, where in the absence of the state, people find themselves without knowing what to do. This is what the film claims and it is a very necessary and deep reflection', said Peña.

The screening was also surprisingly attended by the film's producer, Pascal Troechslin, who was at the Festival de Málaga in the MAFIZ industry area, and he took the opportunity to tell how the project came about and the struggles they had to get funding due to the director's short career at the time, but the story was exciting and they soon got funding. The feature film was later a great success in the Latin American country, as it was at the Festival, where it made hall 4 of the Albéniz deeply moved. ‘The story of Arami and his mother is very personal and intimate, but it is an issue that touches us all because we all have a mother, and that is why we can empathise with the film so much’, says the producer.

Tomorrow, the Focus Paraguay section ends with the film ‘El apartamento’ by Michael Kovich Jr.