SXSW Award Winner ‘What We Leave Behind’ Documents An Aging Man’s “Final Act”
deadline.comSome movie stars can hold the screen without saying a word, their faces etched with such character they arrest attention. From an earlier era, Robert Mitchum, William Holden and Jean Gabin come to mind.Julián Moreno possesses that kind of face – deeply lined, with a gaze that at times feels engaged in the distance.
He’s not an actor, but he does anchor a film: the documentary What We Leave Behind, directed by his granddaughter, Iliana Sosa.
His mere presence on screen is enough to retain our interest, whether he’s speaking or, more often than not, simply being – quietly, powerfully inhabiting the frame.Sosa began filming with her grandfather when he was already well into his 80s.
She had known him all her life; he lived in a small town in Mexico’s northern state of Durango and would cross the U.S. border once a month to visit his daughter, Iliana’s mother.“I have vivid memories of my grandfather Julián’s visits to my home in El Paso,” Sosa writes in a director’s statement. “He would come by bus every month from Durango, Mexico, and visit for just a day, bringing jamoncillo, chile, and Mexican candy.
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