As the credits began to roll, I truly felt a pang of sadness, as I couldn’t believe my time with Omar, Noah, Dana, Rosana, and Lily was over, but I also felt very hopeful.
Written by Talia Ryckman-Klein
The World Upside Down is a beautiful and hopeful film by the filmmaking duo, Agostina Di Luciano and Leon Schwitter. The film recently had its North American premiere at the Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montreal (RIDM), and I had the great pleasure of watching the film and later getting the opportunity to discuss it during an interview with Agostina and Leon. The World Upside Down is an anomaly of sorts, as it combines documentary style filmmaking along with elements of fiction and magic realism to convey the film's main message, which is: storytelling, oral history, and community will save us. The unique style of filmmaking only aids in driving home the film's message, and while it speaks to many things: class, politics, and more, it’s the use of magic realism and incorporation of Argentine folklore that completes the film, leaving one feeling hopeful and moved after having watched it.
The World Upside Down follows two storylines: that of Omar, Noah, and Dana, and that of Rosana and Lily, who all reside in a small village in the Argentinian countryside. While the two storylines never directly intertwine and both sets of people lead very different and distinct lives, what they do share is their lived experiences with Argentine folklore and how that bleeds into their day-to-day lives. The World Upside Down is a film I highly recommend everyone see, as it refuses to pigeonhole itself into one set style. When speaking to Agostina and Leon, they both emphasised that while they knew they wanted to make a documentary, both stood firmly in the fact that they did not want to use talking heads and other common styles of documentary filmmaking to tell the story, as it didn’t speak to the particular story they were trying to tell.
The message they’re communicating in this film, I believe, is only elevated by their decision to play with various filmmaking styles. It is evident when speaking to Agostina and Leon, as well as when watching the film, that they love cinema and are passionate about the act of storytelling through film. This is clearly displayed in the pacing of the film, its slower pace and use of long, lingering shots give an atmospheric and immersive feel. It allows one to really sit with the setting, the people, with what they’re saying, and really listen. The gorgeous, languid pacing expertly aligns with one of the film's key messages: that for many of us, we live very fast-paced lives, lives built around instant gratification, or that society has us believing that our jobs define who we are, etc., but the film gets its audience to just sit in the stillness, in the silence, in nature, in the joy, in the stories. To sit with all of it and let it wash over us, and emerge with a different outlook on life, and how to live it.
The World Upside Down informs and imparts many things, but perhaps my favourite is the emphasis on storytelling and community. To start with, Omar, Dana, and Noah, we see a tight-knit and loving family. The bond between Omar and Noah, in particular, is heartwarming to watch, and their devotion to one another is palpable. Everything in this storyline begins to shift when Omar encounters a bright white light one evening, and thus begins a search between Omar and Noah for answers and meaning. While at times this particular part of the film felt almost Lynchian in the mysterious, foreboding tone, shot style, and the way it approached Omar's struggle with belief, it still maintained a balance of levity and warmth due to the interactions we were able to bear witness to between grandfather and grandson.
Then we have Rosana and Lily, two housekeepers who are looking after a villa whose owners aren’t present. One day, while cleaning one of the rooms in the sprawling villa, Rosana and Lily open a closet door, only to be met with a brick wall. This leads to the two women beginning a daily practice of lighting candles in front of the brick wall, leading to an unburdening and catharsis between them. One of my favourite scenes in the film is watching Rosana and Lily in the pool together. The pure, unbridled joy that is shared between them is infectious, and I believe that’s due in part to their daily practices together with the wall. What’s more is aside from the spiritual journey we see them go on, we also see a great friendship between the two. As soon as we meet Rosana and Lily, one can instantly see that they share a strong bond. And this only progresses the more we see of them. We witness their conversations about politics and the struggles of modern life, but what shines through is the warmth that radiates between them.
It is a massive undertaking approaching as many themes and subject matter as Agostina and Leon do in The World Upside Down, but they did so in a beautiful, engaging, and hopeful way. The late great Joan Didion said, in the opening of her book The White Album, “we tell ourselves stories to live”, and that’s what this film is all about. Storytelling. Community. The art and power of storytelling and how that invites us into community building, and the importance of that. It is not only important but necessary to us as human beings. When watching The World Upside Down, you sometimes feel as if you’ve been transported to a different moment in time, or, in the 77 minutes of the film's runtime, that time has stood still. We are watching as these stories from Argentine folklore, that are hundreds of years old, are just as powerful and just as captivating as they were years and years ago. The World Upside Down inspires its audience to not just let the world around us pass us by, but to live in it and really feel it. To connect with the people around us and create meaningful and lasting relationships through the act of connection through storytelling.
As the credits began to roll, I truly felt a pang of sadness, as I couldn’t believe my time with Omar, Noah, Dana, Rosana, and Lily was over, but I also felt very hopeful. What this directing duo has done with the film is a remarkable thing. Both Agostina and Leon very clearly love what they do, and that shines through when watching the film, and I cannot wait to see more of their work in the future. So I implore all of you to watch The World Upside Down and let it consume you. Allow yourself, for the film's runtime to be consumed by the people, their lives, and the stories they tell, and I promise you’ll leave feeling full of hope and endlessly grateful for storytelling, community, and cinema.
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