La Antena

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La antena
Laantena poster.png
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Esteban Sapir
Produced by Federico Rotstein
Written by Esteban Sapir
Starring Alejandro Urdapilleta
Rafael Ferro
Music by Leo Sujatovich
Cinematography Cristian Cottet
Edited by Pablo Barbieri Carrera
Distributed by Pachamama Cine
Release date
24 January 2007 (Netherlands)
19 April 2007 (Argentina)
Running time
90 minutes
Country Argentina
Language Spanish
La Antena (English: The Aerial) is a 2007 Argentine drama film, written and
directed by acclaimed film director Esteban Sapir. The film features Alejandro
Urdapilleta, Rafael Ferro, Florencia Raggi, and others.[1]

Contents
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Deleted scenes
4 Production
5 Exhibition
6 Critical reception
7 Awards
8 References
9 External links
Plot
The movie begins with a pair of hands typing on a typewriter. The denizens of a
nameless city "in the year XX" have lost their voices. People communicate by
mouthing out words that are spelled mid-air. The only person who has kept the use
of her voice is La Voz ("the voice"), a singer working for the sole TV channel
broadcast in the city, run by Mr. TV, who desires La Voz. La Voz wears a hood over
her head that hides away her face. She has a son called Tom�s, an eyeless little
kid who nonetheless also has a voice (although this is kept a secret). Tom�s lives
next door to Ana, whom he one day befriends after a letter addressed to his house
is erroneously delivered to hers.

Ana's parents are estranged - he works for Mr. TV as a TV repairman, she is a nurse
at a hospital. When Ana loses a "balloon man" owned by the channel, her father and
grandfather are fired from the studio. Soon enough, Ana's father stumbles upon
evidence that La Voz has been kidnapped, and, together with Mr. TV's vengeful son,
they set out to spy on Mr. TV. Ana's father pays his ex-wife to let them into the
hospital, where Mr. TV and his henchman Dr. Y (a scientist whose lower head has
been replaced with a TV screen showing a mouth) subject La Voz to a series of
experiments of dubious nature. They plan to use La Voz's unique power to finally
subdue the denizens of the city. However, Dr. Y theorizes that a second voice might
counter the effect of La Voz's. Mr. TV's outraged son comes out of hiding, is
overpowered, and then put away, by his father's henchmen, whereas Ana's father
manages to escape with the aid of his wife.

The reconciled couple manage to rescue Ana and Tom�s from Mr. TV's henchmen (led by
a masked, malformed man referred to as "the Rat Man") and meet with the
grandfather. Since Mr. TV is going to broadcast La Voz's voice and thus subdue all
citizens, they have to broadcast a second voice to counter the effect. The
grandfather suggests using an old station, The Aerial, abandoned in the outskirts
of the city, in the snowy mountains. Tom�s, Ana and her parents don inflatable
suits (equal to those donned by "balloon men") which send them floating up in the
sky. Just as the grandfather finishes elevating them, the Rat Man and his henchmen
arrive and shoot him. The family are then propelled away into the mountains.

Meanwhile, Mr. TV and Dr. Y initiate the broadcast during a boxing match. The
citizens become hypnotized and subsequently fall asleep. Words then start oozing
out of their bodies - the machine that sucked out their voice now takes their words
out of them. In The Aerial, the Rat Man and his henchmen storm into the station,
stopping short Tom�s's transmission. Ana's father and the Rat Man fight over a gun
and stumble into a secret room in the station that reveals The Aerial's director, a
young girl fitted inside a glass orb that oversees the production of the drugged
food that keeps citizens under Mr. TV's control.

The gun goes off and kills The Aerial's director, who turns into an old woman after
dying, and Ana knocks down the Rat Man. Back at the lab, Tom�s's transmission sends
Dr. Y into a choking fit and is finished off by Mr. TV. The transmissions counter
each other and the citizens wake up, now able to use their voice (albeit without
being able to speak). In the end, the family comes out of The Aerial, trying their
new voices.

Cast
Alejandro Urdapilleta as Mr TV
Rafael Ferro as The Inventor
Florencia Raggi as The Voice
Julieta Cardinali as Nurse
Valeria Bertuccelli as Son of Mr TV
Ricardo Merkin as The Grandfather
Deleted scenes
The DVD contains a number of deleted scenes that expand on the movie. Among these
are featured a scene presenting the Rat Man looking at a family portrait of
anthropomorphic mice, a scene leading to Ana's father and grandfather being fired
(as well as a shorter episode where the grandfather laments the dismissal), a scene
depicting La Voz stripping in front of Mr. TV (followed by her drugging and
kidnapping), an altogether different introduction for Dr. Y (as well as a
presentation of the transmission device) and both an alternate beginning and
ending. The alternate beginning differs from the one in the final cut in that it
explains the existence of "balloon men". The alternate ending does not contradict
the final cut ending but rather expands on it: in the ending, after Mr. TV has
finished Dr. Y off, La Voz frees herself from her bondage and realizes much to her
rage that she now has a face but apparently cannot talk anymore. She then takes
hold of a remote control and "deletes" Mr. TV. It also shows Mr. TV's son freeing
himself from a chained television and proceeding to write on a typewriter (the
shots matching those of two hands writing on a typewriter at the beginning of the
film).

Production
The movie's script consisted of a mere 60 pages and a story-board of over 3,000
shots that took 5 months to draw. Principal shooting took 11 weeks and the post-
production took more than a year for completion.

Exhibition
The film premi�red at the Rotterdam Film Festival on 24 January 2007. It was the
first time in 36 years that a film was chosen for both the official competition and
opening of the Rotterdam Film Festival.

It was released to cinemas in the United Kingdom on 16 May 2008 by Dogwoof

Pictures, with a DVD-Video release following on 18 August 2008.

Critical reception
Film critics liked the film, with one writing, "This was the most original film
that I have seen since last year's Pan's Labyrinth. What was even more amazing was
that the budget was estimated at $1.5 million, quite a bit of money in Argentina,
but not for Hollywood. It just proves that you do not need $60 million dollars to
do a film, especially one of quality. On a critical note, some viewers will be
overwhelmed by the fast pace of the screenplay. Plus, with so many metaphors, one
might have difficulty keeping up with what is actually going on. The production
crew, headed by Daniel Gimelberg, brings out Esteban Sepir's imagination in full
throttle."[2]

Awards
Wins

Clarin Entertainment Awards: Clarin Award, Best Film Director (Esteban Sapir); Best
Original Film Music, (Leo Sujatovich); 2007.
Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards: Best Director (Esteban Sapir); Best
Editing (Pablo Barbieri Carrera); Best Sound (Jos� Luis D�az); 2008.
A Night of Horror International Film Festival: Best Foreign Language Film; 2008.
Fant-Asia Film Festival: Fantasia Ground-Breaker Award (third place); 2008.
References
La antena on IMDb .
Sapir, Esteban Archived 3 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Cinema Without
Borders, film review, January 2007. Last accessed: 18 February 2008
External links
La Antena on IMDb
La Antena at cinenacional.com �See Tfd�(in Spanish)
La Antena film review at La Naci�n by Diego Batlle �See Tfd�(in Spanish)
La Antena film trailer on YouTube �See Tfd�(in Spanish)
Categories: 2007 filmsSpanish-language films2000s fantasy films