Brothers Alfredo and Luis Carlos Hueck made their first film, using their father’s Betamax camera, in 1986. In 2005, they produced their first professional film, the short [YBI-173]. Their 2013 comedy Papita, maní, tostón set box office records in Venezuela.
Then they decided to so something different. They wanted to make a fictional film based on their own lives. This became Back to Life (Vuelve a la Vida). Although they completed the filming in 2016, because of various political, Covid-related, and financial setbacks, it would be seven years before they could release it in Venezuela.
In the film, it is 1996. It is based on what Luis Carlos (who studied at UCLA) experienced when he was 18 years old. Ricardo Henríquez (José Ramón Barreto) returns home to Caracas after a year in New York as an exchange student.
On a trip to the beach with friends, he has an erection that won’t go away. At first, this leads to jokes and teasing. However, it becomes clear that something is very wrong. Taken to a hospital, Ricardo, who already has a high white blood cell count, is diagnosed with a form of cancer that is commonly considered fatal. His parents, desperately seeking help, discover that in the United States there is an experimental and extremely expensive treatment that might work if they can find a perfect match for a bone marrow transplant. Ricardo’s younger brother, Manuel (Allan Grynbal), insists that he will be the match. The doctors inform him that it is highly unlikely that a brother could be a match. But, much to their shock, Manuel can give bone marrow to his brother.
Films about dysfunctional families are so common that it is difficult for me to keep watching them. What I liked about Back to Life is that the Hueck family, in the film and in real life, are a functional family. Ricardo’s parents and siblings band together to do everything in their powers to help Ricardo physically, psychologically and spiritually. The film and the Hueck family are inspirations of what families can be.
