El Sur (The South)

Victor Erice’s second feature shot in 1983 is based on a story by Adelaida García Morales and if you tend to watch movies for what I call “linear” story, I strongly suggest that after watching this movie you find the story and read the last 12 pages as here in this movie you wont be able to find the part of the story on those pages, that part that some may call the end…

This fascinating movie has a fascinating story, as the movie is not finished, as Erice for still today mysterious reasons was forced to stop the shooting and with the material he already filmed he created the movie we’re able to see. Some people liked the end product and send it to Cannes and the rest is cinema history as he created a cinema masterpiece.

The movie does not tell a particularly extraordinary tale. Tells of a young woman who recalls her father’s mysterious figure and fate, trying to understand why he acted as he did.

From the opening scene up to the last scene you will be seeing visual poetry. This film is poetry in motion with extraordinary performances and a pace that gently invites you to see everything that is in the screen.

The cinematography is poetry. The dialogues are poetry. The acting is poetry. As in poetry where words create beautiful ideas that transmit stimulus that generate feelings, Erice was able to create a masterpiece from parts and pieces of what he and others call an unfinished work.

The most amazing thing is that when you see this movie, you do not need more, you do not want more, what you saw is more than enough to generate in you strong feelings, visual pleasure and total satisfaction. I learned the story about the making of the movie after I saw it and I couldn’t believe it, as the movie lacks absolutely nothing as it is.

The movie has 3 wins and 2 nominations, including a nomination for the Golden Palm at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.

Not for all audiences, you have to like art cinema and if you do then this is a must be seen movie.