Fernando Lopez | Novena / 2022

prayers for a lost soul

by Douglas Messerli

 

Fernando Lopez (screenwriter and director) Novena / 2022 [16 minutes]

 

Manuel (Jonathan De La Torre), his sister Carina (Kriss Dozal), and others are sharing one of the nine days in memorial and prayer for the loss of their mother when Eddy (Joseph Mercado) knocks on the door apologizing for not having been able to make it earlier in the week.

     Although Manuel sends a slightly glowering look at Eddy as they sit on the couch to continue their prayers, when they finish he grabs Eddy’s hand, thanking him for coming. Eddy declares that his mother always treated her as one of her own and could not imagine not paying his respects.

     Given that the house is darkly lit for the funereal Novena, most of director Fernando Lopez’s film is very murky, both in its images and story, and we must feel our way around the edges of this work to comprehend the relationship and past events between the two protagonists. What is already clear is there are some bad feelings between the two men.

     We quickly learn that Eddy’s stay is brief since he announces to Carina that he flies out tomorrow morning. When Eddy finally joins Manuel in his bedroom to talk, he asks after Hector, apparently Manuel’s brother, who he’s told has still about 2 ½ years left, presumably of a prison sentence.

      When Manuel offers Eddy a slug of beer, Eddy asks if he has something stronger, his friend pulling out a pint of liquor. There’s obviously some resentment, Manuel responding that it looks as if Eddy has done pretty good for himself these days. What his friend had once declared he wanted, he evidently now has, Manuel conjectures; but as Eddy himself admits, he has had “to leave a lot a shit behind.” One wonders whether his relationship with Manuel was part of that “shit.”

       Evidently, Eddy has been away for a long time, years in fact, hating to have to return only at such a sad moment.

     In that moment Manuel turns on him, arguing that he is not like Eddy, the friend retaliating by asking if he’s like his brother then—clearly a reference to his imprisonment—which leads Manuel to his violent response, demanding he say nothing further about his brother. Eddy admits that he barely recognizes his former friend, Manuel retaliating, “What did you expect? I’m not going to let you suck my dick if that’s what you came for!”

        At last, we know something of their former relationship, perhaps the reason why Eddy hung around Manuel’s home and family long ago. And we know that the long time Eddy has been away has led to a deep resentment and now rejection by the man who might have been Eddy’s former lover.

       Eddy clearly has no choice but to leave. Yet Manuel is also clearly sorry to see him go, and as Eddy leaves the house calls out him to ask where he staying. Eddy admits that he hasn’t figured it out.

       The situation changes almost immediately, as Manuel offers him a ride that ends in the parking lot of a local motel. Suggesting that his friend might want to listen to some old CDs he has in his glove compartment, Eddy pulls out what is clearly a collation of long-ago favorites of theirs; “I soundtracked all our bad choices,” confesses Manuel. And the mellow jazz sounds of “Tres Boletos” brings smiles to their faces and obviously memories of their past times.

       By the time they reach the motel lot, Manuel is ready to apologize and admit that he’s proud of what Eddy has done. But Eddy recognizes his reasons for that resentment. Manuel must now take over the role of family leader, and both recognize without either speaking if that it means that for him there is no escape to the world where Eddy has evidently gone.

      Eddy reaches out to help to relax his buddy’s tension, Manuel sighing heavily several times, perhaps, in part, just to feel Eddy’s touch after all these years. Before long, the two are embracing, Manuel almost breaking down into tears.

       Soon after they’re kissing. After a break in the film’s image and moment a quietude, the screen opens on what is clearly the next morning, the two having spent the night together in the car. Manuel zips up his jeans and Eddy rebuttons his shirt.

       Eddy opens the car door and exits, leaning into the open window to say “I’ll try to come around more often,” Manuel shaking his head while answering, “Yeah.”

       Manuel drives off, stopping at another point beside an old couch someone has tossed away. He simply sits in place, on the verge of tears, looking ever so often to the now empty seat from where his lover has just had sex with him. He hugs his coat close, finally breaking it to tears, knowing that there can never a time “more often,” that it is over between them.

       The prayers of the Novena were not just for his mother, but his soul as well.

       This film was featured in a collation of short film in NewFest 2023.

 

Los Angeles, October 16, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (October 2023).