A CLEAN WELL-LIGHTED PLACE

SHORT FILM

Tucumán, Argentina, 1976. Two waiters near the end of their workday deal with the last customer of the night, an old man who frequents the bar. Their conversations revolve around him and become more and more existential until they question their own values during the last military dictatorship.

NELSON URDANETA- DIRECTOR

Nelson Urdaneta was born in Venezuela. He worked as a programmer and film promoter at the Cinemateca Nacional de Venezuela. He studied at Eliseo Subiela Film School. In 2011, he participated in the Berlinale Talents Buenos Aires. In 2015, he won a prize for script development from the Film Institute of Venezuela (CNAC) for writing his debut film "Sons of the Road.”

directors statement

"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" was written by Ernest Hemingway in 1933 during the turbulent Second Spanish Republic. The Franco dictatorship censored the story, and a significant fragment of its content was stolen, without which the work loses total meaning. My adaptation focuses on the context of the last military dictatorship in Argentina that began in 1976.

My main interest in adapting the story arose when I realized that several generations in Spain and Argentina did not have access to the original version until the end of the dictatorship in both countries. The story is of great value to me. Despite the time that has elapsed, I find the work as simple and dazzling as it is mysterious. The ideas established in the story are surprisingly valid in these times, and I consider that their valuable reflections deserve to be adapted to a new audience, who may also feel motivated to read the original story and discover the extraordinary work of the author.