El niño de la luna

It deals with a child named David (Enrique Saldana) who is adopted by an ominous , treacherous sect led by a stiff-upper-lip ruler (Lucia Bose) and an understanding woman called Victoria (Maribel Martin) . But David along with a young called Edgar (David Sust) and a pregnant girl called Victoria (Lisa Gerrard) escape from the terrible fascist and Nazi-alike center towards Africa where David's fate awaits him . As David who possesses extrasensory perception undergoes an adventurous voyage throughout Africa and to resolve his fate as Child Of The Moon . But David and Victoria are mercilessly chased by the heinous organization .

This is an eerie film with fantastic events , mystery , suspense , adventures and results to be pretty interesting . Being well produced by the marriage Maribel Martin and the early deceased Julian Mateos , both of them produced three thought-provoking films : Los Santos Inocentes , Viaje a Ninguna Parte and this El Niño De La Luna . Interpretations by the enjoyable main cast are frankly well . Adequate support cast such as Lucia Bose , Mary Carrillo , a brief acting by a young Luis Homar , Jordi Bosch , uncredited Pep Tosar and Gunter Meisner who starred Agusti Villaronga's previous film : Tras El Cristal .

Colorful and brilliant cinematography by the veteran photographer Jaume Peracaula. Jaume is considered to be one of the best Spanish cameramen who has photographed a lot of successes such as : Inconscientes , La Hora De Los Valientes , Despues Del Sueño , Blanca Paloma , La Cripta , among others . Mysterious and New Age musical score by Dead Can dance (band led by Lisa Gerrard). Lisa Gerrard , subsequently became a famous soundtrack composer with hits as Gladiator , Ali , Man on fire , Heat and Priest . The motion picture was well directed by Agusti Villaronga , though it has some flaws , gaps and turns out to be overlong . Agusti is a good filmmaker , and Goya winner . As ¨Niño De La Luna¨ won Goyas for screenplay , costume design and make-up . Villaronga is expert on films plenty of dark and weird atmospheres such as : El Mar , 99.9 , Aro Tolbukhin , Tras El Cristal , and his most successful film was ¨Pan Negro¨ that also won several Goya Awards

Interesting watch and pretty enjoyable. Great camera work and story. The funny quirk is I found it funny the Director had The actor for David keep his mouth open almost the whole movie! Don't know if that was intentional, just how the actor is with his resting face, but it's noticeable, and often hilarious. Not once is his mouth closed except to form words.

There is mysticism, occult, great script and the acting is pretty good overall, with some flaws in maybe pacing. The locations and shots are great for a what seems like, a TV movie. Not sure if this was released in the movie theatre. Even the kid in Africa David meets has his mouth open too...weird.

Villaronga's next movie after the magnificent IN A GLASS CAGE feels undercooked. There is a premise and there is a central character, but aspects of this "fantasy" are muddled.

The plot involves a wise child (Enrique Saldana), identified as possessing special powers, taking part in a pilgrimage that takes him to Africa -- it's a KUNDUN-esqe journey that hints at a religious, faith-based revelation that never materializes. The reason for there being "interest" in the child, from some quarters, is never fully explained, summing up the film's major problem: Too much is left up to the audience to decipher.

This being a Villaronga film, much of the imagery is commanding and the performances are strong, but the structure is weak.

A curious casting choice is Australian-born composer Lisa Gerrard (whose credits include co-writing GLADIATOR with Hans Zimmer and scoring Michael Mann's THE INSIDER) as a strange woman who has a spiritual connection to the boy "savior".

Not recommended and not widely available.

Beautifully shot film with one of the greatest soundtracks of the last ten years, composed by the mysterious Dead Can Dance. It's a pity they explicitly decided never to publish the soundtrack on CD. Also Lisa Gerrard from Dead Can Dance plays one of the main roles in the movie.

This is a magical story of an orphan confined in a claustrophobic, orwellian institution, somewhere in post-WWII Europe (it's never specified where). There they keep children from all over the world that show some form of telepathic skill to experiment with those powers. Our main character starts to discover, somehow, that he has a mission, that he's the carrier of a strange message…

Surrealistic, strange, "lynchian" at times, the movie flows at ease and keeps you on your toes from beginning to end. Stylish cinematography by Jaime Peracaula, solid screenplay and direction by the enigmatic Villaronga, and -once again- a soundtrack that would charm any fan of Dead Can Dance.

Highly recommendable if you have a chance to see it, specially since it was never published to video and there are no plans to ever release it in such format.

One of the strangest movies ever made in Spain.

This is not what it sounds like. It is approximately a kids' mystical adventure movie, on the order of The Black Stallion, except for a nude sex scene, followed by what looks like a surgical procedure that I didn't understand. In structure this is a suspense movie, but the suspense is limited to escape and pursuit; the mystical or metaphysical element--the child's visions, the scientific-occult conspiracy to which he is delivered, and so forth--which one would expect to be churned into melodrama, as the same situation was in The Fury, is presented matter-of-factly, rather as magic realism.

Alastair Crowley's novel of the same title has a different plot, but may still have inspired the movie, because it also involves a scheme by an occult group to generate a child with magical powers, and the film has about it an air of the 20s, as perhaps of Rex Ingram (one of whose films concerned a fictional Crowley).

The story has flaws: e.g. it forgets that the main characters have "wild talents," and so their escape and pursuit is a matter of mundane running and hiding; for someone in the clutches of an authoritarian group with a recruited cadre of psychics, the child is able to sneak in and out very easily; characters' affections and determinations change without warning--all of which suit the kids' movie this (almost) is.