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Qué tan lejos is a 2006 film directed by Ecuadorian filmmaker Tania Hermida. The film is a road movie co-produced by Ecuador and Spain, and it stars Tania Martinez and Cecilia Vallejo as an Ecuadorian student and a Spanish tourist, respectively, that met each other in a bus and take rides together when the roads are blocked because of a strike. Hermida had the plot idea in 1997 but only started to produce the film in 2003. Filming was entirely done in Ecuador during 2005, while post-production finished in 2006. The directorial debut of Hermida, Qué tan lejos was meant to be an ironic reflection about identity and difference. The film satirizes folkloric-like and tourist-like images about Ecuador and Latin American in general. The journey the main characters go through reflect the director's reading of Mexican writer Octavio Paz's book El mono gramático discussion about the search for a meaning. Some commentators noted the protagonist's trip is a self-discovery journey analogous to that of a Bildungsroman. The film internationally premiered at the 2006 Montreal World Film Festival, where it won a Silver Zenith award for directorial debut film. Following that, it was released nationwide in Ecuador in September 2006. The film was box office hit; it played for six months in theaters and attracted 220,000 viewers. This figure made the film the second most seen film in the history of Ecuador. Following a tour across other major film festivals in São Paulo International Film Festival, Havana Film Festival, Guadalajara, and Moscow, Qué tan lejos was also released in Spain, France, Switzerland and Austria. Plot The plot follows an Ecuadorian Literature student, Tristeza (Vallejo) from Quito and a Spanish traveler, Esperanza (Martinez) from Barcelona as they unexpectedly travel together from Quito to Cuenca. Tristeza wants to stop Daniel, her summer love, from marrying and Esperanza just wants to travel when an Indigenous-led strike makes it impossible to travel by bus. They are then forced to improvise their way to Cuenca, taking rides from unknown people. After a first frustrated attempt, they take a ride from two journalists covering the strike. They are seemingly interested on the women but they abandon Tristeza and Esperanza after reaching the point where the road is blocked because they say they fear being attacked by Indigenous people. With no one at sight, Tristeza and Esperanza continue their way on foot. Tired and without knowing where to go, Tristeza and Esperanza meet Jesús. He also needs to go to Cuenca because he needs to release the cremated ashes of his grandmother into the Tomebamba River so he accompanies the women. After stopping to eat something in Alausí, they separate themselves as Tristeza gets a ride with a motobiker to Zhud. Meanwhile, Esperanza and Jesús ride horses to a small village, where they meet Andrés, who gives them a ride. Esperanza and Jesús meet Tristeza again and the three continue on their way along with Andrés. When they stop at a restaurant, Andrés tells he is going to the wedding of a friend known as "Pollo" (Chicken). Andrés description of the man matches Daniel's and Tristeza gets frustrated to know that Daniel is a womanizer who was already engaged when they met each other. Disillusioned, Tristeza gives up arriving before Daniel's wedding to stop it and instead the three go to a beach, as suggested by Andrés. They met Francisco "Iguana" and have fun at night. However, they sleep at the beach and when they wake up their belongings have almost been dragged by the sea, and Jesús' grandmother ashes have gone into the sea. Jesús, however, keeps carrying the pot and puts some sand on it. The three take a bus to Cuenca; they sleep on it and when the women wake up Jesús is already gone, but has left the pot behind. Tristeza and Esperanza go to Daniel's wedding but they only observe from distance. Daniel sees Tristeza and does nothing so the women go away and get drunk, as Tristeza reveals her name to be Teresa. Finally, they release the content from the pot over the Tomebamba River. Cast Cecilia Vallejo as Tristeza / Teresa Tania Martinez as Esperanza Pancho Aguirre as Jesus Fausto Miño as Andrés Elena Torres as Shopkeeper in Alausí Production The first feature film directed by Tania Hermida after working as an assistant director for Proof of Life, Maria Full of Grace and Crónicas, the idea of Qué tan lejos came during a stay in Madrid in 1997. The project for the film, however, only started in 2003, and had trouble to find fundraisers. The film had a budget of about 200,000 dollars and was produced by a 30-people staff. It was a co-produced by Corporación Ecuador para Largo and Spanish company La Zanfoña; the Ecuadorian company was responsible for 75% of the film, while La Zanfonã worked in the remaining 25%. Filming took five weeks in the second half of 2005 and was entirely done in Ecuador across eight different provinces: Azuay, Cañar, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, Guayas, Manabí, Pichincha, and Tungurahua. Its post-production was finished by April 2006. The film's cast was composed by 20 Ecuadorian actors and one Spanish actress. It was also the first time protagonist Cecilia Vallejo acted on a feature film. Themes Hermida described the film as "an ironic reflection about how we construct our identities from the differences with the 'other'", and "how useless our certainties can be when confronted with the different". The director commented the film allowed several interpretations from the viewers, including what Hermida described as "how beautiful is Ecuador". However, ultimately, she declared that it "is about the impossibility of having an identity", and was done to show that "a landscape is not a country" and how the touristic image of the country is "nonsense". The depiction of the landscapes, customs and everything that could seem folkloric-like or tourist-like was meant to be ironic, according to the director. Ecuadorian newspaper La Hora said the film is "full of [...] nuances of irony about ourselves, about how we see ourselves and, through the character of the Spanish girl, about how we are seen from abroad". At first, Hermida did not think about the reason Tristeza would travel for. Eventually she came up with the wedding idea but did not plan to give it much importance as it was completely "anedoctal" and just a reason to talk about other things. The film's main theme was taken from a line of Octavio Paz's El mono gramático that Tristeza reads in the first part of the film: "These words that I write are searching for their meaning, and that it is all their meaning consists of". As such, the film seems to end without a meaning but the meaning itself is the absence of a meaning. "A travel has no end", said Hermida; "it is cyclic, it ends where it started". Ecuadorian newspaper El Telégrafo seconded it, saying "The language through which [the film] speaks to us is an—endless—search for meaning." The journey of search for a meaning.... Discover the Veronica Garibotto Jorge Perez popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Veronica Garibotto Jorge Perez books.