Dir. Ricardo Soto
Official Selection Feature Mexico
The Richter Scale says: “I am going to put myself to sleep now for a bit longer than usual. Call it Eternity …” This quote by Jerzy Kosinski (shown in English for some reason) opens this peculiar movie where we see a brother and a sister playing together on the grass, spinning with their eyes closed until they get dizzy and other games children play. Not too far, a man we suppose is their father is looking for them. This is where we hear their names; Leo and Ana. Cut to several years later and we see these two siblings as adults, living nightmarish lives. Ana is a sort of sadomasochistic prostitute and Leo jumps from job to job, isolated and only talking to his dog. While we watch these two’s horrible lives, we find out the terrible thing that happened that led them on these paths.
The movie is only 63 minutes long and when a movie is that short, it’s usually because the filmmaker knows that what he/she is offering can’t be endured in a longer running time. Yes, what Ricardo Soto proposes with this film is difficult to watch. There is barely any dialogue and most of it comes from supporting or incidental characters (only one of the siblings speaks and very briefly at that), scenes jump from terrifying event to terrifying event (whenever we watch Ana do her job, it looks like she’s being raped) and the movie’s ending is a difficult one to gasp, because the director applies a blinking effect where he cuts to black every few seconds, which confuses the audience. It’s very uncomfortable, but it is obvious the director was going for something he knows is not for everyone.
Visually, he does very interesting things and the actors do what is needed of them. They keep these characters at a distance from the spectator. We’re never sure what they might be thinking or if they’re thinking anything at all. They simply go on with these lives where there doesn’t seem to be a way out. There isn’t a narrative per se. Just what we see on the screen and what led to that.
This film will screen today at 6:00 pm at the Juárez Theater.
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