Start
the New Year with the salt of the earth and the theater of the absurd. Eloy Enciso combines the observational documentary
with vignettes from Jenaro Marinhas del Valle’s play O Bosque forming a decidedly experimental hybrid. For those looking for a tactile sense of
Galicia, the Museum of the Modern Image is the place to be when Enciso’s Arraianos (trailer here) screens as part of this year’s First Look.
In
a hardscrabble Spanish village near the Portuguese border, Galician is still
the common tongue. Time appears to stand
still and nature rules capriciously. In
what could be scene out of Waiting for Godot,
two old women bicker as they try in vain to chart a course out of the dark woods.
Meanwhile, rough-hewn farmers labor with tools that appear wholly inadequate
for the tasks at hand. For respite, they
gather at the pub and sing traditional Galician drinking songs together. Perhaps salvation lies with a blind prophet
who promises to lead wayfarers through the forest, but his appearance may only
be a short-lived narrative tease.
The
songs heard in Arraianos really are
cool. Unfortunately, the music and occasional
snippets of folklore invariably give way to long shots of livestock. Enciso is clearly more interested in creating
a visual tone poem to Galicia than any sort of traditional documentary or
narrative feature. The result should be
catnip for those who admire Denis Côté’s Bestiaire. Cinematographer Mauro Herce fully captures
the grey, dankness of the region. Yet for
mere mortals, the film is rather frustrating, temporarily stimulating out
interest, but then quickly shifting the focus to some cows.