Director: Marco Berger
Ausente (Absent) aspires to be so much more than it achieves. The film tells a story of forbidden love between a 16 year old boy and his teacher. More precisely, the boy loves his teacher whom does not return or even consider his pupil's love until an untimely accident kills the boy.
The film does not enter the mind of the boy, the side of the lover. The student remains largely undeveloped. Berger instead follows the mind of the teacher who finds the boy odd, strange, and at times even hateful.
There is a heavy reliance on music, more familiar in thrillers than love stories. The track heaves and falls as possible transgressions between student and teacher loom and subside. Yet no act of love or desire occurs. The music, like the narrative, become as unreliable as to break trust (and interest) between the film and its viewer. What remains is a maze of false starts, empty dead ends, and confused direction. Here is a film that daringly attempts to blur the boundaries of love before examining what love is.
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