Rodrigo is a loner who acts tough but is still called "puppy" by his mother. He feels threatened by the arrival of Fernando, a kind and generous man who tries to bond with him. SUMMER WHITE is a film about territorial masculinity and the psychological conflict of a 13-year-old boy who resents his mother's new partner. The director Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson creates a tense domestic drama with three excellent actors with a sharp editing style. The film shows the close but unhealthy relationship between Rodrigo and his mother Valeria, who are comfortable with nudity and sleeping together. In his influential 1956 book “The Art of Loving,” German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm argues that motherly love involves caring for the child’s growth and independence. However, in SUMMER WHITE, the debut film by Patterson, Valeria and her clingy 13-year-old son Rodrigo have a hard time letting go of each other. Through the boy’s jealous perspective, Patterson examines the complex bond between mother and son with sensitivity and courage, touching on Freudian issues of separation and attachment. “SUMMER WHITE is a coming of age film because it’s about the end of childhood (infancia in Spanish), which etymologically means “The impossibility to speak.” It’s a film about how we deal with complex emotions such as love, dependence, jealousy, that we experience for the first time in our lives. If we can’t speak, in what clumsy ways do we express them? I believe that’s the final goal: To observe in an intimate way how difficult human relations are." (Director Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson)
13-year-old Rodrigo's entire world revolves around his mother, but it all begins to fall apart when she brings home a new boyfriend.
Rodrigo is a loner who acts tough but is still called "puppy" by his mother. He feels threatened by the arrival of Fernando, a kind and generous man who tries to bond with him. SUMMER WHITE is a film about territorial masculinity and the psychological conflict of a 13-year-old boy who resents his mother's new partner. The director Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson creates a tense domestic drama with three excellent actors with a sharp editing style. The film shows the close but unhealthy relationship between Rodrigo and his mother Valeria, who are comfortable with nudity and sleeping together.
In his influential 1956 book “The Art of Loving,” German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm argues that motherly love involves caring for the child’s growth and independence. However, in SUMMER WHITE, the debut film by Patterson, Valeria and her clingy 13-year-old son Rodrigo have a hard time letting go of each other. Through the boy’s jealous perspective, Patterson examines the complex bond between mother and son with sensitivity and courage, touching on Freudian issues of separation and attachment.
“SUMMER WHITE is a coming of age film because it’s about the end of childhood (infancia in Spanish), which etymologically means “The impossibility to speak.” It’s a film about how we deal with complex emotions such as love, dependence, jealousy, that we experience for the first time in our lives. If we can’t speak, in what clumsy ways do we express them? I believe that’s the final goal: To observe in an intimate way how difficult human relations are." (Director Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson)