Interview: Argentinian directing duo present mix of comedy, drama about the dangers of fame

Argentinian film directors Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat, presenting The Distinguished Citizen at the ongoing film festival, said they had always been interested in the phenomenon of successful personalities ending up as modern idols.

"We wanted to analyze the reactions of the inhabitants of a small rural Argentinian village once the 'hero' is already famous. Then it was interesting to investigate how the fanaticism and the idolatry could turn in a total opposite direction," Cohn and Duprat told Xinhua recently in an interview here.

The story presents a writer who, after winning the Nobel Prize, is in desperate search of fresh inspiration. Without knowing it, he will make an apparently simple journey where he will have to face the "ghosts" of his past.

Duprat explained that one of the messages of the movie is that being famous can also be dangerous because, after the rush of popularity, people can discover a different and uncomfortable truth about you.

According to Duprat, the story is universal: "when you have an artist or a writer everybody is venerating him without knowing his works or why he is concretely famous."

Cohn said they chose a writer as protagonist because they were able to "hide" his literary works in the movie, showing a more obscure angle than if he had been a sculptor or painter.

In the movie, Duprat explained, there are some elements of the Italian neorealism like the long shots, the images of the village, traveling through the streets, and the presence of children and dogs running around. Endit