O que arde

This was a dreary effort posturing itself as some sort of artistic work but in reality it has little substance and most people will just find it a bit boring.

Coupled with that, there is no resolving of the main characters guilt or not and leaves it up tot he viewer to work it out but in this case it just falls a bit flat.

This film won the Golden Alexander at Thessalonki International Film Festival and I had the chance to watch it there. It looked great, so why not give it a shot?

After watching it my thoughts are mixed. Yes, if you are a cinematography freak, you will adore this one. The shots are really natural and provoke a sense of awe for the pure and unprocessed beauty of nature and it is a great portrayl of the nver-ending love-hate realtionship between humanity and nature and how this two great forces will always collide and crush onto one another. We depend on nature and nature depends on us. I really loved some of the images and I have to say that this film is a great example of tone consistency, even if the tone of the film is not for everyone. I don't have a problem with slow films, because there's usually something intriguing to watch in those like, a character study or in this case a variety of shots of the nature. A lto of films have a tendency to loose their tone and to become meaningless and messy but this one never forgets its goal and that's why it got my interest. That and the fact that around that time I was really hyped up for a reason and even if I tried to sleep, it would a lot of effort. The sound and images serve for a visual feast of gorgeous shots of trees, lakes, animals and people gazing at their greatness and scale.

As for the characters, well the main character was really interesting and by the end of the film his story feels complete yet sad and tragic and I felt really bad for him. His character serves as a storng remind that the past will always haunt us and will affect the present. the way the society and our realtives treat us and our view of life. It is a true struggle to prove to others that things have changed and you actually end up being followed by your wrongs.But people that really love you, also forgive you and care for you and accept you. It is a great concept for a film and it was pretty well done.

The thing about the film is that it felt kind of all over the place and I assure you that evne if I watched 2 months ago, I remember really little form the film. Yes, everything looked great and there was a sense of interest and empathy for the main character, but the film lacked a drama, a tension, a sense of events taking place. It feels like the first 1 hour we view beautiful shots and then the last act is the plot.And the parts were characters interact feel great. I loved the scene where the main acotr talks to a woman and Leonard Cohen's mesmerizing "Suzanne". The song fits so much to the scene and I got a sense of authentic immesuarble beauty and warmness in my heart from this scene, even it was just about two characters driving will this song plays. The images are perfrect, the song is beautful and I loved how hte scene feels like a breath of freshn air compared to the more moody dark tone of the film. I guess if you realllyy get into the film's atmosphere and themes you will love it. It is defenately a gorgeous experience, but if it had a more present structure and we got5 to meet the characters more and observe hteir conversaitons, I would probably have apprecieted the story and characters more. It is powerful and expressive ,though, but it lacks a clarity and order which would help me to feel it more.

6 or 7 not sure

Pure power of audiovisual language, showing the essence of the human being thru silence

I've heard somewhere than only a local story can be truly universal, well, this is absolutely rooted in Galicia and it's as complete a portrait as can be, from rain to sun, beauty, calmness, wisdom, loneliness and everything in between, every movement has a true resonance. It subtly ranks the region's alleged common enemies with a deep understanding: tourism, eucalyptus, fire and, ultimately, people.

To someone knowing the region this might even be redundant but there's more to it than the hipnotic flow of nature and things. It's an excellent film.

The story of Amador, who returns to his village in Galicia, after 2 years imprisoned by arson. This film is 80% cinematography, filmed in a beautiful 16mm, with long shots of the mountains, village houses, animals, and impressive images of a fire (the team is to be congratulated for the realism of it). The narrative has a slow pace, almost no development from the first act until the end, but I believe that that was the goal of Oliver Laxe, to portray the calmness and loneliness of country life. The short and cold dialogues are the reflexion of a community that is not given to affections, but always united in tragedy.