CANDIDO
with Stefan Wirnsperger
Documentary, 16:9, 48:50 min
2019
Baja California Film Festival 2020
Spotlight Documentary Film - Silver Award 2020
Tijuana’s reputation is that of a dangerous border-town with one of the highest murder rates in the world. Obviously the ideal setting for a movie based on “Candide”, a book written by French philosopher Voltaire. After all, during the course of the story, the protagonist Candide is cast out, beaten, robbed, starved, sentenced to death, deported, abducted, enslaved and - more than once - almost killed. Paying tribute to that topos, the essayistic documentary “Candido” observes the daily challenges of five inhabitants of Tijuana’s most dangerous and violence-ridden district, Camino Verde. They talk about life under difficult circumstances, being cheap labour force and the unlikely optimism that is needed to transform a desert into a growing garden. The dichotomy that the existence of every winner also demands a loser shapes our society. It puts you on one side or the other. “Candido” is a film about the people who find themselves on the wrong side but still refuse to be the victims of their own life story.