Araya (1959)
-
87% of critics liked it
(23 reviews) -
95% of users liked it
(65 ratings)
Shown at Cannes in 1959, the year after Venezuela's last dictator Marcos Perez-Jimenez was overthrown, the documentary inadvertently highlights the kind of exploitation of the poor that can lead to rebellion. While the dictator escaped to Miami with $13 million, salt workers were piling up… More Shown at Cannes in 1959, the year after Venezuela's last dictator Marcos Perez-Jimenez was overthrown, the documentary inadvertently highlights the kind of exploitation of the poor that can lead to rebellion. While the dictator escaped to Miami with $13 million, salt workers were piling up mounds of salt on the flat sands, making barely enough money to keep them in arepas and black beans. Between the hot, tropical climate and the sores on their feet, the job these workers do every day is excruciating. Yet the lives of the fishermen and salt workers in this documentary are shown in the context of planned, upscale development, something of a disservice to the larger picture. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Directed By
- Margot Benacerraf
- Written By
- Pierre Seghers, Margot Benacerraf
- Genres
- Documentary, Drama, Art House & International, Special Interest
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Dec 31, 1959 Wide
- On DVD
- May 17, 2011
- Studio
- Milestone Films
Critic Reviews
-
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post
This expertly restored black-and-white work is a thing of wonder.
-
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
This astonishing documentary, so beautiful, so horrifying, was filmed in the late 1950s, when an old way of life had not yet ended.
-
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Like the late famed anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, the movie wants to find a culture and explain it to the world. Araya finds a degree of romance in that discovery, and is weaker for it.
-
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Margot Benacerraf's starkly beautiful 1959 documentary Araya is the rare film whose austere stylistic impersonality is a key aspect of its elemental power.
-
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
It cares so passionately about its subjects that you will as well.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
No Featured Audience Ratings Found…
Currently unavailable on Flixster
Also available on
Other Retailers
Not Available
Not Available
Not Available
Subscription Services
Not Available
Not Available
Not Available
