The filmmaker's honeymoon trip in 1970 led him and his wife Jacqueline, complete with backpack and camera, all through the Bolivian Andes. On their way they discovered the old silver mining city of the Incas, Potosi, once one of the biggest and most prosperous cities in the world. Three decades later they go back there again with a film camera and their three daughters. The film documents this journey, putting the footage in relation to the photographs taken during the first trip. Memory and the present overlap, creating an impressive reflection on generations and the effects of time.
Ron Havilio is a master of composing these pieces of memory and the present. Because of the use of the photos from the 1970 trip and the photo and film material from the recent trip, Potosi, le temps du voyage is not simply a travel film. It does indeed relate a great deal of information about the rise and fall of the city of Potosi, but it also sheds light on the inner workings of the director's own Israeli family. Havilio exposes the stories behind the images, and his method lets us look deep into a reality marked by the living conditions of the viewer.
Gabriela Seidel
Production: Ron Havilio, Jerusalem; Ex Nihilo, Paris
Screenplay, Cinematographer: Ron Havilio
Editors: Mela Marquez, Ron Havilio
Black and White Photographs (1970): Ron and Jacqueline Havilio
Color Photographs (1999): Yaël Havilio
Format: 35mm (shot on Super16), Color
Running time: 246 minutes (Part 1: 130 minutes/Part 2: 116 minutes)
Languages: Spanish, Hebrew, English
