DIRECTOR: Daniel Yegres
STARRING: Eduardo Gonzalez, Michelle De Andrade, Aura Rivas, Ana Castell, Pedro Duran
RUNNING TIME: 2 hrs 6 minutes
LANGUAGE: Spanish
PLOT: It tells the story of Venezuelan singer-songwriter Alí Primera, tracing the events that shaped him into the most devoted voice of his people. It’s a tale of deep love, enduring tragedy, and songs that became anthems of hope and resistance.
GENRE: Drama
FILMING LOCATION: Peninsula de Paraguana, Venezuela
To check out all previous submissions for Venezuela, click HERE.
STARRING: Eduardo Gonzalez, Michelle De Andrade, Aura Rivas, Ana Castell, Pedro Duran
RUNNING TIME: 2 hrs 6 minutes
LANGUAGE: Spanish
PLOT: It tells the story of Venezuelan singer-songwriter Alí Primera, tracing the events that shaped him into the most devoted voice of his people. It’s a tale of deep love, enduring tragedy, and songs that became anthems of hope and resistance.
GENRE: Drama
FILMING LOCATION: Peninsula de Paraguana, Venezuela
To check out all previous submissions for Venezuela, click HERE.
FILM REVIEW:
(This review contains spoilers.)
“There are reasons to be happy, but of sadness, there are many more."
Daniel Yegres’ Ali Primera is a passionate and deeply human portrait of one of Venezuela’s most iconic voices, a man whose music transcended entertainment to become a vehicle for resistance, love, and social awareness. Through an intimate blend of archival footage, reenactments, and testimonies, Yegres reconstructs the life of the beloved singer-songwriter who rose from poverty to become the voice of the Venezuelan people. The film captures the evolution of Alí Primera not just as an artist but as a political conscience, someone who understood that songs could ignite a sense of unity and purpose among the marginalized.
The director approaches his subject with both reverence and realism, avoiding the trappings of blind idealization. Instead, Yegres presents Primera as a complex individual, driven, tender, and sometimes tormented by the very ideals he upheld. The film carefully weaves together his artistic journey with the tumultuous history of Venezuela in the 1960s and 1970s, highlighting how his personal experiences of injustice, love, and grief shaped his political and creative convictions. Each song featured in the film becomes a time capsule, echoing the aspirations of a generation and the pains of a nation struggling to define itself.
Ali Primera is striking in its emotional balance. The film oscillates between the collective and the intimate, pairing public rallies and performances with quiet, introspective moments that reveal the man behind the revolutionary icon. Yegres’ use of music is particularly potent, rather than mere background, the songs are treated as living documents that advance the narrative and convey the emotional truth of their composer. The editing rhythm mirrors the cadence of Primera’s compositions: slow, deliberate, and full of conviction. In doing so, the film becomes not just a biographical retelling but a cinematic extension of his ethos, the blending of poetry, pain, and protest.
Ali Primera is about the power of art as a moral act. Beneath the layers of biography and nostalgia lies a call to conscience: the belief that music can and must stand for something greater than itself. The film reminds viewers that songs can be weapons of empathy and truth in times of silence and fear. By portraying the triumphs and tragedies that shaped Alí Primera’s voice, Yegres underlines a timeless message, one that urges us to speak, sing, and act in defense of what is right, even when doing so comes at the highest personal cost.
(This review contains spoilers.)
“There are reasons to be happy, but of sadness, there are many more."
Daniel Yegres’ Ali Primera is a passionate and deeply human portrait of one of Venezuela’s most iconic voices, a man whose music transcended entertainment to become a vehicle for resistance, love, and social awareness. Through an intimate blend of archival footage, reenactments, and testimonies, Yegres reconstructs the life of the beloved singer-songwriter who rose from poverty to become the voice of the Venezuelan people. The film captures the evolution of Alí Primera not just as an artist but as a political conscience, someone who understood that songs could ignite a sense of unity and purpose among the marginalized.
The director approaches his subject with both reverence and realism, avoiding the trappings of blind idealization. Instead, Yegres presents Primera as a complex individual, driven, tender, and sometimes tormented by the very ideals he upheld. The film carefully weaves together his artistic journey with the tumultuous history of Venezuela in the 1960s and 1970s, highlighting how his personal experiences of injustice, love, and grief shaped his political and creative convictions. Each song featured in the film becomes a time capsule, echoing the aspirations of a generation and the pains of a nation struggling to define itself.
Ali Primera is striking in its emotional balance. The film oscillates between the collective and the intimate, pairing public rallies and performances with quiet, introspective moments that reveal the man behind the revolutionary icon. Yegres’ use of music is particularly potent, rather than mere background, the songs are treated as living documents that advance the narrative and convey the emotional truth of their composer. The editing rhythm mirrors the cadence of Primera’s compositions: slow, deliberate, and full of conviction. In doing so, the film becomes not just a biographical retelling but a cinematic extension of his ethos, the blending of poetry, pain, and protest.
Ali Primera is about the power of art as a moral act. Beneath the layers of biography and nostalgia lies a call to conscience: the belief that music can and must stand for something greater than itself. The film reminds viewers that songs can be weapons of empathy and truth in times of silence and fear. By portraying the triumphs and tragedies that shaped Alí Primera’s voice, Yegres underlines a timeless message, one that urges us to speak, sing, and act in defense of what is right, even when doing so comes at the highest personal cost.
