How Long Is “Liverpool”?

The emotional wreckage left by one lonely man and his endless wandering is chronicled in this low-key drama from Argentinean filmmaker Lisandro Alonso. Farrel (Juan Fernandez) is a merchant sailor who has spent nearly all his adult life drifting from one job in one port to another. Farrel has never stayed in one place long enough to make many friends, and for all his freedom he's found little joy or contentment in his rootless existence. Farrel arrives in Ushuaia, a seaside city that's the closest thing he has to a home, and pays an unannounced visit to Trujillo (Nieves Cabrera), a longtime friend of his family. When Farrel went off to sea, Trujillo ended up looking after his daughter, Analia (Giselle Irrazabal), after the girl's mother passed on. Trujillo feels a deep contempt for Farrel because of his failure to care for his own child, and while teenage Analia harbors her own resentments, a childhood without parental love or support has turned her into a young woman who has turned all her emotions in on herself. Liverpool was screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight competition at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.