Thiruvananthapuram: Jack Zagha is certainly not among the easily recognised names in world cinema. The Mexican filmmaker is just three films old, but he seems to be well on the way to become a favourite of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) audience.
In 2014, he came to Thiruvananthapuram with his sophomore effort ‘One for the Road’, on a road trip undertaken by three 80-year-old men. The response of the audience to its repeat screenings had then overwhelmed the director.
On Sunday, his third film ‘Warehoused’ was greeted similarly by the crowd in a filled-to-the-brim Tagore theatre. The humour that his films are known for drives this one too. Eliciting humour was a considerable challenge in ‘Warehoused’, compared to the upbeat road movie, as it happens mostly inside a dreary old warehouse with just two characters to drive the whole plot.
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At the centre of the story is a warehouse, where old Lino is preparing for his retirement after 39 years in service. Nin, his replacement, has one week to prepare for the job, as Lino’s understudy. However, Nin soon realises that the warehouse is always empty and the delivery trucks never arrive.
Old Lino however thrives on the pointless routine of 39 years, arriving 7 minutes before the scheduled time, keeping the punching card a certain way, constantly saying that the “trucks arrive when they come”. Even the ants in the warehouse have followed the same path for the past 39 years, he says, until the young lazy Nin arrived to upset it all. Nin’s unconventional name itself becomes a point of debate between them.
Lino symbolises those who worship authority, going about their mostly pointless work, unquestioningly. He says that he was an understudy for 11 years, and kept standing for all those years, since there was only one chair for the storehouse manager. Nin is of a different breed, used to asking the uncomfortable questions, used to using his wit to turn things his way and to better things for those around him.
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Humour flies thick and fast in the exchanges between these two individuals, who sit on opposite poles, in their life experience and outlook to life. Zagha seems to say that it’s good to break the routines, the pointless rules. David Desola who penned ‘One for the road’ has scripted ‘Warehoused’ too.
Zagha sadly was not present at the Tagore theatre to witness the warm reception from the audience, as he is back home nursing an injured leg. His brother Yossy Zagha, the producer of the film, was here though to take the photographs of the cheering crowd back home.
EOM