From Afar(2016)

Plot Summary

• Wealthy middle-aged Armando lures young men to his home with money. He doesnt want to touch, only watch from a strict distance. He also follows an elderly businessman with whom he seems to have had a traumatic relationship. Armandos first encounter with street thug Elder is violent, but this doesnt discourage the lonely mans fascination with the tough handsome teenager. Financial interest keeps Elder visiting him regularly and an unexpected intimacy emerges. But Armandos haunted past looms large, and Elder commits the ultimate act of affection on Armandos behalf.Lorenzo Vigas' first featured explores the psychology of a man terrified by the prospect of physical contact. This multi-layered film is at once a exploration of frustated desire and window onto the incredible social stratification of Caracas.Desde Allá speaks to Venezuela's present reality, with a narrative that traverses the disparate social classes comprising the country's capital from the gated communities of the very rich to the chaos of the downtown neighbourhoods, and out to the poor communities in the monotonous apartment blocks.

Storyline

• Armando, a middle-aged owner of a Caracas dental prosthesis business, is estranged from his father, who he observes occasionally from a distance. He finds a young man of the streets who negotiates a fee high enough for the boy to be used to provide Armando's masturbatory object. Although a following encounter ends in a beating for Armando, he continues to make the boy dependent. What is the final result that Armando desires? Is it something more than a conflicted relationship with a hustler? — tgkohn