Sueño en otro idioma

So happy we found this. The scenery was beautiful right from the start. The acting was flawless. The storyline timeless. Subtitles are needed for those of us that don't speak Spanish. Without giving away any spoilers, it's a story of love, commitment, social and personal evolvement, and universal spirituality.

One wonderfully crafted gem about the clash of several different worlds. Language, sexuality and personal aspirations all became entangled showing us all how chaotic Life is and how hard it is to make sense of it all.

A very plausible argument and human back ground made this movie very special for me because my personal emotional subtext filled all the blanks in the story.

I´m yet digesting it but i could not resist in reviewing it in the hope that others see it.

Saw this film at the very last minute without knowing a thing about it beyond the one or two line description that the cashier gave me at the theater showing it. I was standing there and it was about to start, and I asked what's it about--and her response was enough to make me hand money over to see it at literally a moment's notice, so you know you got an interesting idea if your brief synopsis is interesting enough to hook someone like that. (Basically two people who hate each other are the last two people on Earth to speak this one language and this linguist who's interested in preserving the language has to somehow convince these two men to start speaking to one another again which of course isn't easy)

The film follows this guy who is very interested in trying to preserve this rapidly dying language in the very photogenic San Isidro area of Mexico. There are at the film's beginning only three people in the world who speak this particular dialect, and so the guy who is a linguist tries his best to record what he can of it, and possibly try and learn a handful of words himself to try and keep the language alive as it was, and these two other people who make up the last people on Earth who speak this language are former best friends who have not spoken to one another in over 50 years, and bear a huge grudge against one another for reasons that will eventually be made clear during the course of the movie. Meanwhile our leading man ends up starting a relationship with the granddaughter/caretaker of one of these two men, and the two of them plot together to try and unite these two former friends so as to try and preserve what they can of the dying out language. Its a cute enough premise, and as a backdrop to a love story for the linguist and the granddaughter its not a half bad love story as well.

The imagery of this movie is very good, and the way the material is presented at first made me think we might be getting some sort of off beat comedy along the lines of Aki Kurismaki or Jim Jarmusch, but the film's tone quickly veers more towards the melodramatic than humorous as the film's main story-line gets going. Its an OK film on the whole, and I think if people can embrace the metaphysical aspects of the film's big climactic sequence, they might end up enjoying the film's last half hour a bit more than I did. I wasn't prepared for the film to veer into the metaphysical the way it did, although I appreciated it, it reminded me a little bit of the TV series "Northern Exposure" in that sense, in fact the whole premise itself was very "Northern Expsoure" like which may in fact be what made me decide to see it just on a sheer moment's notice. (about that shift into metaphysical--without giving anything away i'll just say that the film's depiction of what happens to the dying as they um lay dying was interesting to contemplate afterwards, it'd be nice to think that that's what happens! I thought it was neat, but it doesn't quite track with the literal way the story was presenting itself in that first hour or so...but still i give the film credit for at least changing itself up in a unique way.)

I do look forward to seeing what the writer/director of this does in the future tho, there are some sequences here that are very beautifully shot, and i think the scenery is just very, very well captured. Its worth checking out if you get the chance to see it, but well like I said, after a great first half or so, i think the film veers into melodrama terrain, and i think the film kind of writes itself into a corner at one point, like after the big reveal is revealed, I wasn't entirely sure where the film was left to go to, but its still more than interesting enough to hold your attention or fancy (as in flight of) on the whole.

It is a must see for any person interested in native roots. As Mexican I cannot describe the power of this piece of our roots. Obviously made from the soul. It is magical realism at its finest.

The Mexican film Sueño en otro idioma was shown in the U.S. with the translated title I Dream in Another Language (2017). It was directed by Ernesto Contreras.

This is a fascinating movie, based on a plausible situation. An indigenous language--Zikril--

is vanishing. When the movie begins, there are only three people who can still speak Zikril. Soon, there are just two. A young linguist, Martín (played by Fernando Álvarez Rebeil), wants to preserve the language. The problem is that the two men who can speak Zikril hate each other. José Manuel Ponce plays Isauro, and Eligio Meléndez portrays Evaristo. By amazing good fortune--for Martín--the most beautiful woman in Mexico, Lluvia (Fátima Molina) is the granddaughter of one of the men.

The plot of the film revolves around Martín's attempts to bring the two men together so they can have a conversation in Zikril. That will allow Martín to record them and save the language for future generations. Of course, bringing them together means unraveling the reason that they are apart. Naturally, the reason isn't anything simple. It's a complex set of events that have remained buried until Martín arrives.

We saw this fascinating film at Rochester's great Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman Museum. It was shown as part of ImageOut, the wonderful Rochester LGBT Film Festival. Unfortunately, this movie is best seen in a theater. The vegetation in the rain forest in which the film is set is astounding. However, even if you lose that aspect of the film, the basic story line will compensate for this. I recommend that you find this movie and watch it.