In Memoriam Juan Pablo Rebella: Uruguayan Director of Whisky, Aged 32

Several months ago, after renting the film Whisky, I made a mental note to keep track of its director Juan Pablo Rebella and his work. I expected the next I would hear of him would be upon the release of another feature, one that would fulfill the enormous potential of his early films. It was thus with much sadness that I read the young director had committed suicide last week.

I know nothing of the man, although these links offer some background about his life and death. What I do know was that Whisky was a remarkable film, terribly sad and tender. The aging owner of a dilapidated sock factory asks his long time employee to pretend to be his wife in order to impress his visiting brother. This triangle of characters struggle with desires and hopes on which they fail to act because of their individual limitations. Throughout the film connections between are characters are only fleeting moment. These are good people living proud lives but lives that are horribly empty. The movie captures the loss of what could be, but is not.

Whisky is also an allegory for the nation. Several years ago, I lived in Argentina. Every three months in order to extend my visa, I would take the ferry from Buenos Aires across Rio de la Plata to Montevideo. Sometimes I went with friends but sometimes I went by myself and wandered the streets of Ciudad Vieja. I walked past the shells of once grand nineteenth century buildings, some now home to many poor families, some left to rot. In this decaying world I was struck by the dignity of the men on the benches Plaza Independencia, the women in the street doing their errands. People dressed in worn clothing, but worn with a care as though it was a fine garment just back from the tailor.

This was before the devaluation of the Argentine Peso in 2001, an economic collapse that affected Uruguay just as forcefully but with less international notice. Like Argentina, Uruguay is a nation of great promise that has never been able to fulfill its destiny, instead remaining mired in economic stagnation and political instability. Just as the lack of personal will and the ability to take a chance that keeps the characters trapped in their empty lives, the Uruguay shown in Whisky is a nation that cannot come to terms with its place in the global world. As love might save the characters from the distant lives they lead, human contact might also be the path to salvation for the nation. Without the energy, openness, and trust that comes from recognizing a shared humanity there can be not hope for love or national development.

The artists of a small nation are precious things, to be valued as the life of the people. To lose one as fine as Rebella at such a young age is a deep loss.