From Afar

From Afar is a Venezuelan-Mexican drama set in Caracas. Armando, a man of about fifty who owns a dental prosthetics laboratory, approaches young men in the street and pays them to come home with him, wanting only to watch them from a distance rather than touch them. He also keeps a habitual watch on an older man from his past, whose whereabouts and routines he knows closely, and something unresolved links the two. Armando's life changes when he brings home Elder, a teenager who leads a small band of young delinquents. Their first encounter turns violent, but Armando's fascination with the rough young man persists, and Elder keeps returning for money. Out of these meetings grows an intense and unsettling bond that alters the course of both their lives.

Lorenzo Vigas directed the film, his first feature, from a screenplay he wrote with Guillermo Arriaga; Arriaga also produced alongside Rodolfo Cova and Michel Franco. Alfredo Castro plays Armando, with Luis Silva as Elder and supporting turns from Jericó Montilla, Catherina Cardozo, Marcos Moreno and Jorge Luis Bosque. The film runs 93 minutes.

Audience response has been moderate: it holds a rating of 6.6 out of 10 on IMDb from around 4,400 votes, and 6.1 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller base of 139 votes. Its critics' rating stands at 7 out of 10 from 52 reviews, placing it above both audience scores.