“Cactus from an uninhabited apartment” (translated) is a tribute to my grandparents Santiago and Carmen, but also a poetic documentary and an audiovisual essay.

On the one hand, the story focuses on the life and legacy of my grandparents —including the recently vacated apartment after my grandfather’s death. On the other hand, it is also a critical, reflective metaphor on the perception of time, hyperreality and the frenetic pace of the metropolis today, where there are empty spaces that remain invisible.

Through old pictures, super 8 films and the abandoned apartment, where my grandparents lived most of their life, I’ve tried to communicate the universal feeling of profound melancholy and ignorance on the death of things. Time freezes in a space where old clocks, now both stopped, were spinning before to the beat of a familiar routine. An empty house which however is still full of traces of past lives.

Inspired slightly on the last scenes of M. Haneke’s Love, my goal has been to make both the viewer and myself think by underlining the importance of keeping ours eyes open to the uncertainty of living. With the right look, we can find a hint of life even in the most arid and inhospitable deserts… like a cactus, for instance.