Río escondido

A subtitled print of this film is currently running on the Sundance Channel, but you had better have a fair understanding of Spanish. The subtitles are white, very often against a white background which eats them up completly without leaving a crumb. This print is in letter-box format, with a nice black strip across the bottom of the screen, but that is not where the subtitles are. Does anybody ever LOOK at a print after the subtitles are added, to see if they can be seen?

This film is a gem! Although a woman's sensibility (director/writer Mercedes Garcia Guevara) pervades, this work should have universal appeal. It's essentially a story of reclamation and redemption, told through visual and subtle means...a true cinematic experience that left me moved and thoughtful. Paola Krum, as Ana, the working mother and wife of a business man, sets the right-on tone of deep feeling, anguish and passion. Ana, on her journey of investigation and discovery, finds more than she thought she was looking for...a meeting with a man who accepts and "knows" her without a need for the facts of her life. He, effectively played by Juan Palomino, is given a redemptive love to allow him the life he deserves. What also impressed and pleased me about this film was its mystery, its careful restraint, which never insulted my intelligence or intuitive ability.

Made on a low budget, Rio Escondido far outshines its humble financing. Mercedes García Guevara (the only recent Argentine female film maker in a heavily male-dominated industry) has crafted a film of remarkable beauty and amazingly authentic emotions. The acting is superb on all fronts, but especially that of the lead Ana (Paola Krum), whom the camera and the director both love with competing passion. The cinematography is exquisite and the simple and straightforward plot lets the characters and their dilemmas take precedence without being shallow or predictable. The movie grabbed my attention without my noticing and I found myself caught up in the dilemmas of the characters very early on. Krum's acting had a great deal to do with this. A very beautiful woman with an extraordinarily expressive face.

At the showing I attended, the audience gave an almost universal cry of surprise as the film ended. Most did not expect Rio Escondido when it did, but upon reflection I think most of us agreed that its timing was near-perfect.

The sound editing was a little questionable towards the beginning and when Ana is first driving (I think the same points could have been communicated with a little less volume) and the copy I saw had some distracting imperfections in the reel, but other than this Rio Escondido does what it attempts to do and in an immensely satisfying way. Excellent.