Fantastic Fest 2023: David Velduque's Short "Transición" Raises Awareness Through Body Horror
Angela lives alone, fearful of strangers and of change. When her reality is upended by the arrival of a new caregiver, she struggles to come to terms with truth vs. fantasy.
Old age is nightmare fuel ripe with body horror opportunity, and that’s precisely what Spanish filmmaker David Velduque leans into with his latest short, Transción. The film is about the loneliness and abandonment felt by senior citizens, which is a theme that transcends cultures or borders; although, what makes Transción even more novel is how Velduque narrows its focus on the elderly trans community specifically. Imagine the sensibilities of Pedro Almodóvar, Gaspar Noé, David Cronenberg, and Chris Cunningham combined into one, and your close to the surreal topical horrors that Velduque delivers here.
The film is a day in the life of Ángela (played by Celeste González), a senior trans woman. Her sweet and friendly care nurse, Alex (Zack Gómez), also a fellow member of the LGBTQ community, calls to check in and let her know he’s embarking on a much-needed holiday to Paris. Ángela is ultimately happy for Alex, yet we can see the news saddens her, and the moment is amplified by her long stare at an ominous vase of dead flowers. Shortly after the call, Ángela’s grip on reality starts to unravel as strange visitors and horrifying visions began to haunt her.
Right away, the film finds a nice rhythm with its score (by Martín Jiménez Sánchez) and editing (from Víctor J. Alvarado), a rhythm it largely maintains for its duration with exception of its penultimate scene. The photographs that fill Ángela’s living space effectively create a larger narrative of her life; we can glean that she was probably a dancer and that Alex is her only friend. The photos are a subtle element that Velduque uses to deepen the tragedy and emphasize the point of the piece.
The B&W cinematography from Alejandro Buera is absolutely gorgeous, and its one of the short’s most sparkling features. The special effects are also wonderfully disturbing, and they turn Ángela’s nightmare into a visceral reality. Velduque directs with a steady hand, and interestingly uses door frames similarly to the photographs, as another means of framing Ángela’s life and the horrors therein, which is also reinforced by the film’s aspect ratio. There are a few jump scares that feel cheap, but the body horror on display here is super effective and unsettling.
As the horror crescendos, the film momentarily loses some punch and its footing, but as it ebbs into its conclusion, it finds its groove back. Its final moment, which echoes Ángela and the vase of flowers, finds an optimistic note to sail out on, introducing a beautiful pop of color that nicely contrasts with its dark subject matter. Overall, it’s a very strong short film that showcases a lot of promising talent from all those involved and helps to raise awareness about a silenced reality that affects trans people.
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