ALMATY INDIE FILM FESTIVAL

A Loss of Something Ever Felt

Carlos E. Lesmes · 2020

Overview

Eeva’s mother Hille has maintained close ties with her drug-addict son, Lauri, who left Estonia for South America. But their last call ended in an argument and it’s been six months since she heard from Lauri. Hille has become desperate.

Eeva, long estranged from her brother, reluctantly travels to Bogotá, Colombia, to search for him on the streets. Isolated by language and culture, Eeva begins to imagine her brother's life as one of the many invisible urban souls. Lurching between hope and panic, Eeva’s dangerous journey suddenly takes an unexpected turn that transforms her chase into an unforgettable mission of the heart.

Director Biography — Carlos E. Lesmes

Carlos Eduardo Lesmes López (1987) is a Colombian film director currently living and working in Estonia. Graduated as a Filmmaker from Universidad Nacional de Colombia in 2010, after two years working in Diorama post-production as an Editor and Director Carlos moved to Estonia to get his MA degree in Baltic Film and Media School. After completing the degree he has been an active member of the Estonian film community, being part of different feature films and developing his own film projects. Carlos is interested in science fiction, science, comic books and particle physics, but mostly in how all of this can be tied and used to try and tell stories about the experience of being a human. At the moment he is finishing his first full feature documentary film and developing a fiction feature film.

Director Statement

This is the story of a family searching for a loved one. It is a story of the people who shape us and influence who we are and how our lives are tangled together by no other reason than love.

When Eeva told me about it I could immediately relate to the anguish and uncertainty that she and her mother could be feeling. My older brother was murdered and we never knew ho did it or why and there is nothing worse than not knowing. So I decided to embark on this journey with Eeva, trying to help her and her mother to find some answers and hopefully closure.

The film deals with the complexity of family relationships, the particular love-hate and interdependence that we develop towards our siblings and parents.

In this particular case the relationship is defined by addiction. “...The three of us have created our own chain of addiction. You addicted to your drugs, mom addicted to your approval and I to mom’s.”[1] But we can all relate to the complexity of family, we can all see and understand that all families are similar and only the demons are different.

[1] Fragment of one of the many letters Eeva wrote to Lauri.

Credits