Top 20 Alternative Picks for Cannes 2012: Pablo Stoll Ward’s 3

3 – Pablo Stoll Ward

Buzz: After attaining international acclaim with his break out pair of films (25 Watts and Whisky) alongside Juan Pablo Rebella, helmer Pablo Stoll understandably had a rebirth of sorts. He focused on producing oeuvres from the next wave of talents from his native Uruguay and worked on a tribute to Rebella with his first solo, experimental directing debut in Hiroshima (which played at TIFF in 2009). The filmmaker is back into a familiar terrain with this Latin American-European co-production number that premiered in his native country last month.

Gist: In the longstanding tradition of films featuring household occupants each on his or her pathway,  Ana (Anaclara Ferreyra Palfy), an enterprising teenager, is living through a decisive moment in her life. Her mother, Graciela (Sara Bessio), seems at a turning point as well. For Rodolfo, Ana’s father and Graciela’s ex-husband, domestic life in the home of his second wife, is empty and cold, as if it were no place for him. Discreetly he sets out to reclaim his place with them, after having been away for ten years. 3 is a comedy about three people doomed to the same absurd fate: being a family.