Obaba

Obaba is the film that was sent from Spain to the Academy for the foreign language film category. Considering its extraordinary theme with equally unique presentation, it's hard to imagine why it didn't get the Oscar nomination nod. The story tells us about Lurdes, a young filmmaker who travels to the village Obaba to shoot a documentary about its people. Some of the aged inhabitants recall their childhood experiences and these experiences are shown as separate short films. Lurdes tries to co-relate all their stories, in order to do which she slowly becomes a part of Obaba. The village is perhaps meant to be treated as a consciousness, as suggested by the director by his brilliant use of the myth of green lizards as a metaphor.

The film excludes all the typical and clichéd camera angles and shot sequences. For using visual themes, it does many brave experiments. Some of the acting performances are worth mentioning too, for example the actress who played the schoolteacher or the boy who played Esteban. To summarise, "Obaba" was indeed a very refreshing experience for us who often get tired by the same styles of Hollywood hits.

I saw this film at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival.

Obaba is loosely based on Bernardo Axtaga's collection of short stories "Obabakoak", which won Spain's National Prize for Literature. Set in a fictional Basque town, Obaba follows Lourdes (Bárbara Lennie), a film student who has come to tape the town for a school project. She is soon drawn to some of the stories of the residents, all of which are told in flashbacks. These stories help Lourdes to understand the town, its people, and its secrets.

Montxo Armendáriz, who wrote the screenplay and also directed, has put together a fine film that blends the past and the present. Rather than use Lourdes simply as a device for prompting the villagers to tell their stories, she is an integral part of the movie. Lourdes is intrigued by the tales and the town's superstitions, and she soon begins to wonder if she has been caught up in and affected by it all. However, the film takes only a few of the stories from Axtaga's collection, and any political overtones don't seem to be present. The movie takes a more realistic tone and lacks any fantastical elements other than the mysterious blue-green lizards that seem to be indigenous to the area.

Wow, I'm kind of shocked to read so many negative reviews of this movie. Maybe you had to see it in Spain as I did or maybe you have to enjoy movies that make you think. This is not your generic Hollywood-I-understand-everything-within-ten-minutes type of movie. This is a movie that one has to think about and contemplate after it is done and it might take several days to come across what you think the movie was actually trying to say. That, in my opinion, is a sign of a good movie. Obaba is not an actual place, it is a state of mind. Once people understand that, they can see the movie for what it is: an intelligent, beautiful, and mysterious view of northern Spain.

Not since 'A Hard Days Night' can I remember a film where I became so attached to the characters in the drama that I almost didn't believe I was seeing a fictional movie, but a documentary with an omniscient camera secretly filming reality. Viewers can't help but fall deeply in love with Lourdes, played by Barbara Lennie. She is impossibly perfect for the role, and in it; both because of her incredible natural beauty, and because of her flawless ability to make us believe that she isn't acting. But something is missing in the film. As the other reviewer commented, there are a few stories going forward in parallel, but you feel there may have been more that weren't included. So it feels somehow, incomplete. The other reviewer knew about the missing parts from the book, and the missing political overtones. I didn't, but subconsciously, I was hungering for them near the end of the film. This is one of those films where, you feel they may have had, or could have had a perfect 3 hour movie, but had to edit it down to two hours and perhaps cut out some of the most interesting parts. Lourdes carries the burden of three romances: the romance between her and her lover in the film, the one developing between her and the audience; and finally the one with Obaba. The nude scenes of the actress early in the film may have been as important in breaking the tension between her and the audience as they were breaking that between her and her lover. It's my personal biased opinion (interpretation), that the director of the film was only able to make us fall that deeply in love with her because we were looking through his eyes; his, and those of Obaba the town's itself! So what's the point? Are we, from this point on, able to be as seduced by Obaba as she was? With her seduction of her lover and us complete... the story can shift its emphasis onto the love affair between her and Obaba, the town, which covets her as much as we did. But how can a town seduce a beautiful, successful film student?

In any case, this film is charming, and a very fascinating portrayal of the heart of Obaba, a character with a complex personality that in the end, is the principal character in the film.

I found Obaba as the Montxo's best film. Atxaga's work is also visible. The way the director shows the misery of the rural life and the beauty and attraction of the rural environment is magnificent. I've seen almost all the Armendariz's films and I think Obaba is the (final?) good result of a "not so good" filmography. The camera man's work is very good, in the "filming scenes" specially. The best artist is Pilar Lopez Ayala - the teacher- which makes me believe in "the teacher" much more than the other artists. The worst Juan Diego Botto which, I found, doesn't have many registrations in his work as an actor. I've seen it not only in that film.... a pity...) A very international film... let's see in the Oscar.... A universal Basque film.