If you made a list of common stereotypes about struggling writers, Leo (Facundo Cardosi), the protagonist of Ignacio Sesma’s Fearing Future, would probably fit every one of them. Is he poor and desperately looking for more work? Check. Does he suffer from an apparently insurmountable form of writer’s block? Check. Is his personal life a complete mess? Check. Does he regularly turn to drugs and prostitutes to escape the misery of daily life? Check.
As if all of that weren’t cliché enough, however, the premise of the film’s narrative is that Leo falls in love with Jazmín (Ailín Salas), a young female student in one of his writing classes. As you might expect, Jazmín is good-looking, talented at writing, and very eager to learn. Just as predictably, moreover, her admiration for Leo runs quite deep. At one point, she notes that she signed up for his class because she had read and loved his books.
“…Leo falls in love with Jazmín, a young female student…good-looking, talented at writing…”
Admittedly, Sesma seems to realize that his narrative brims with clichés – and in certain respects, he does try to counteract that. To make everything seem more “true to life,” for instance, he shoots the entire film with a shaky handheld camera, frequently relies on long takes, and uses no background music whatsoever.
"…relationships between old men and young women are often implicitly sexist..."
