World Film Festival 2011: Hasta la Vista

Montreal World Film Festival

Production company : Mariano Vanhoof, Fobic Films, Nieuwevaart 118/003, 9000 Gand (Belgique), tél.: (32-09) 329 00 52, fa
Director : Geoffrey Enthoven
Script : Pierre De Clercq
Photography : Gerd Schelfhout
Editor : Philippe Ravoet
Cast : Robrecht Vanden Thoren, Gilles De Schryver, Tom Audenaert, Isabelle de Hertogh, Kimke Desart, Johan Heldenberh, Karlijin Sileghem, Karel Vingerhoets, Katelijne Verbeke, Marilou Mermans
Belgium, 115 min.

Official description of the film:

Hasta la Vista - Come As You Are

"COME AS YOU ARE follows three guys in their early twenties who love wine and women. Wine they have savoured abundantly, but they have never had a woman. Under the guise of a wine tour they embark on a journey to Spain, hoping to get laid there. Nothing will stop them. Not even the fact that each of them is physically challenged: one is blind, another is confined to a wheelchair, and the third is completely paralysed COME AS YOU ARE is loosely based on the life of Asta Philpot, a paralyzed American who fights for handicapped people and their sexual rights. Philpot was the subject of a British documentary, For One Night Only, in 2007, and was featured on several talk shows, including Oprah. "For me this is a very human story," says Enthoven. "What I wanted to achieve is that after a few minutes people actually forget that these main characters are physically challenged. They are just human beings, like you and I, looking for some warmth, some tenderness. What I really want to show with this film is that all of us are living with a handicap when it comes to communicating with others."

Hasta la Vista was awarded the Festival's most prestigious price, the Grand prix des Americas. 

At first, when I read the official description of the film, it did not attract my attention at all. Two days later I was told by someone who had just seen the movie that it was an excellent film and that I should see it, which I did right away. And I am very glad I did.

There is absolutely nothing banal about this film or its main theme of desiring to have the first sexual experience by visiting a brothel. Actually, it was this main theme of the journey to a brothel that initially turned my attention away from this film, since I assumed the interpretation of it would be rather trite. But I was very wrong. The actual visit to a house of ill repute is a small fraction of the film. The rest is about human relationships, limitations, realizations, and human dignity even when faced with difficulties presented by physical handicaps. The film shows the courage, strength and growth that the three main characters undergo. It forces a spectator to come in touch with his or her inner self and to unlock a private corner of tenderness and compassion within.

I heartily recommend this film. It has an unusual combination of being funny and very serious, tender and rough all at the same time. It also has two endings, a sad one and a happy one, which is also quite unusual.

Here is the official trailer of the film that does not do it full justice:

Come as you are (Hasta La Vista) - Trailer