Aleyah Casias

May 4, 2016

English 1101

Hughes
Latino Film festival: Un Otoo sin Berln

The Latino Film festival has been a wonderful ongoing event for the past 32 years. It has
many movies that celebrate Hispanic culture, directors and creative works of art in the form of
camera, lights and action. It is at this event where you can find great movies such as Un Otoo
sin Berlin which means an autumn without Berlin. An exciting movie holds your interest from
beginning to end, filled with unique twists. It starts with a girl traveling on a bus wearing a red
sweater. In the middle of the night, she reaches her destination. She rings the doorbell of an
apartment building in which she says I have returned, Diego. She is met with no reply,
rejected she makes her way to her fathers house where she sees her brother playing video games
through the window. She then has a touching reunion with her brother. You can sense there is
tension in the air as her brother says, father will be angry.
The next day she returns to the apartments, where she is allowed to return home where
she finds an emotionless man. Silence fills the air as he asks where she has been. She says
Berlin, which causes a painful reaction that is cleat to see on his face. After she replies No, I
was not I would never go with out you. The movie continues as they gain a somewhat normal
routine, which seems like it would be overly boring but on the contrary this movie throws twist
and turns at you in a way only a Latin made movie can.
We as the audience quickly come to the conclusion that they were boyfriend and
girlfriend. This keeps your curiosity as silence creates tension throughout the movie as you
slowly learn more about what has happened that has brought them to this moment in time. This
creates a feeling of being put in the middle of the story rather than the traditional beginning,

middle and end. This makes this movie unique with a new exciting twist on a rather simple and
perhaps even unimportant common everyday occurrence. Furthermore, the simple plot of she has
returned makes you wonder why she left and to answer that question you must go on this journey
with her. This adds to the story as it does not readily give anything away.
As the movie progresses the story line gets increasingly complex as this simple plot
includes subplots that distract from the main conflict of June and Diego. One of these subplots
includes her conflict with her father. Once again the silence takes over making nothing clear or
completely obvious. In other movies this would be a mistake and complete disaster but in this
instance it works well. The silence allows you time to put all the pieces together, absorb all the
emotions involved and gives you time to draw your own conclusions. Later we discover the
reason behind the tension she has with her father. The tension is intertwined with the reason why
she left. Her mother had passed away after that she left her life behind at the same time she left
her father and brother behind in a time of mourning.
Another side plot is when she finds a job as a French tutor to a young boy who she
befriends. This sub plots adds a whimsical and charming feel to the movie. This subplot creates a
conflict in the movie when we learn the little boy does not want to learn French but we do not
learn why until we journey deeper into the movie allowing us to get to know the characters as
well as get more familiar with the main and sub plots. Later the boy confides in June telling her
why he does not want to learn French. He tells her the boys at the French school where his only
friend had gone made him eat his hair and he has not seen him since. At first glance you can see
that something does not add up. It is in that moment the audience along with June are able to
recognize the truth of what really happened to this little boys friend. Something he is not able to
understand, which creates a connection between the audience and June as you try to shield this

little boy from the hard reality of the truth. However, this subplot does not end here. It continues
throughout the movie putting in place piece by piece creating an elaborate puzzle. Until one day
out of a tranquil moment enjoying a beautiful day outside resting by a lake the boy asks what
really happened to his friend. A brief pause occurs as June and her friend look at each other and
we take a deep breathe with her as she tells him the truth that his friend was sick and has died.
He silently accepts this and as one conflict resolves another one swiftly comes in to replace the
tension one subplot has just resolved.
Another subplot appears when June comes back and goes to see her friend who upon
returning she finds is heavily pregnant which makes a humorous scene of June going to a
birthing class with Anne for support possible. This scene provides a release for tension as we see
June starts to get accustomed once again to this place and the people she has left. Later this
subplot is used in the reverse and causes tension between Diego and June. This conflict appears
just as June and Diego once again realize they love each other and start to heal as a couple.
Conflict collides with our main characters as June made Diego promise to leave the house to go
to the hospital once Anne had her baby. We come to the understanding that Diego has a problem
whether it is a personality disorder or depression is never made clear to us but it is clear that
Diego has not left his house for months going so far as having his mother shopping for him and
leaving the groceries at his house. So when the time finally came for Diego to meet June at the
hospital she comes home disappointed as Diego never showed. She packs her bags and leaves to
her fathers house. Things are left in disarrayed uncertainty.
They are only reunited when a letter arrives in the mail. Earlier in the movie when she
had returned home to live with Diego again, she went into a bookcase filled with notebooks each
labeled neatly with a title. She takes out a story called Berlin. This peaks your interest and makes

you wonder what importance this place has between these two estranged lovers. She starts
reading the notebook and in a sense, the director carefully puts down this subplot only to pick it
up later on at the right time to throw this underlining subplot into the mix. This subplot once
again breathes life when Diego calls in anger and June comes rushing to him. He hands her a
letter, which she reads. Only to look at him astonished. The letter expressed that the story Berlin
has won first place in a writing contest with a monetary reward and a ceremony honoring the
writer. A contest he did not enter in but June had entered in for him. In a previous scene, they had
gotten into an argument about how he did not want to enter the contest causing conflict between
June and Diego. She now tells Diego he has to go which would mean leaving the house. He
simply answers no. He seems scared but in the end, you begin to feel that his love for June has
begun to heal him. He goes to the ceremony to accept the award although he makes June accept
the reward on his behalf.
Hopeful feeling surges as the couple come together and agree to go to Berlin, a place they
have always wanted to go see together, the place, which had inspired Diego to write the story in
the first place. The happy couple packs in anticipation of their trip to Berlin. June goes to her
fathers house in which the happy uplifting scene shows she has reconciled with her father as he
excitingly helps her pack for her trip. They depart not knowing when or if she will ever be
coming back. This adds a somber tone but also gives you a nice conclusion to the conflict with
her father. She also says goodbye to her young pupil who has not leaned French but learned a
vital life lesson instead. He does not seem eager to say good-bye to June as he lovingly hugs her.
They vow to keep in touch keeping their lasting friendship intact. She finally makes her last stop
to her friend Annes House to see her new baby. This stirs emotions as Anne says good-bye once
again to her friend. As everything seems to be coming to an end and all conflicts are being

resolved. This story once again throws you a curve ball. June comes home to find Diego locked
away in his room which June and the audience now know is the end. This makes your heart drop
as you come to the realization that Diego is not going to go to Berlin with her. He has reverted
back to his old self unable to move on and get past his affliction. It is then you see June take her
bag wearing the same old red sweater she had returned in goes back on the bus.
The ending is hard to accept as you are stunned and plead for this not to be the end. The
unexpected has happened which you cannot account for or begin to make sense of just like in
real life. Overall, this movie with its many silences in between conflicts made it impossible for
you not to be invested in the story, drawing you in and keeping the storyline engaging. It
manages to reveal little by little of each subplot, resolving and creating tension. The aspects of
this movie make it a great cinematic achievement and a must see movie. The constant twist and
turns with the final shocking ending will ensure that you will thing about nothing else. So be
forewarned, watch out! The ending of this movie will catch you off guard and kill you in the end
in the best possible way.