English Film Title: Flour
Original Film Title: Harina
Directors Name: Joanna Nelson
Writers Name: Joanna Nelson
Producer: Joanna Nelson, Ramon Tortolero
Country of Origin: Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Country of Filming: Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Language: Spanish
Runtime: 14 min 53 sec
Film Description:
A middle class working professional struggles to buy food amid Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis. When buying flour for his mother’s birthday cake, he gets caught in the violent looting of a food truck and a conflict arises.
HARINA is a project that was born from the need to narrate the humanitarian crisis and precarious living conditions that are being experienced today in Venezuela, focusing primarily on hunger. Produced and filmed on location in a high-risk environment under what many consider an authoritative regime, Harina’s team took the risk to re-enact a situation which is common to all Venezuelans: the struggle to find food. The different characters in the film struggle with multiple jobs to try to make a living, resorting to acts of corruption, vandalism, stealing and criminality. Until what point is corruption and criminality justified as a coping mechanism in broken down demoralized societies? Do the people living in such precarious conditions have the power to make the right choice, or is there no way out of the broken cycle?