Written and directed by Arturo Ruiz Serrano
This film is not "commercial". It is grim. Notwithstanding that, I rate it highly. I'm not alone in that opinion. The entire audience was absorbed by the film.
During the Spanish civil war, three individuals are unwillingly crammed together physically and emotionally in the tiny space of a stone lookout, atop a ridge, in a snow covered mountain range. It is winter and the snow is knee deep. Horizons are absentees - vision blurred by snow and mist.
The two male individuals are members of the Nationalist army. Just what these two sentinels of the sky are supposed to be guarding or watching over, is not clear. The Nationalists built a line of outposts, together with machine gun bunkers, tank camouflages and ammunition dumps, dug into hills and rocky outcrops, in the Pyrenees, during World War II, presumably to deter invasion from France by the Nazis or the Allies. Stalin had urged Truman and Churchill to combine with Russian forces and invade fascist Spain. But England and America were done with war and Stalin's desire for revenge on Franco went unfulfilled. He had to settle for a trade embargo against Spain. The photograph of the bunker below is typical of the fortifications built after the civil war. I suspect the stone lookout used in the film is a remnant of this line. There may be a simpler explanation - a shepherd's summer shelter. Does anyone know?
Silverio (Eric Francis), a peasant? is a hard man, physically strong and direct in manner. His companion, Teo (Joan Carles Sau) is fresh from a seminary. The climate inside this bolt hole, like the weather outside, is bitterly cold and hostile. Silverio holds Teo in absolute contempt. Teo, in contrast to Silverio, is a lean ascetic, bespectacled, inexperienced and timid. He cringes, hard up against a wall, praying, while Silverio, from the other side curses him and labels him "the Priest".
The dualism of opposites is a constant theme. Silverio is practical, physically threatening, cold and solitary, profane and uneducated, the opposite to Teo, who is spiritual, effete, educated and obviously middle class. In politics, they are also divorced. Silverio has been drafted, unwillingly into the Nationalist army. His sympathies lie with his family and the Republicans in Madrid. Teo is a disciple of the Church and a supporter of Franco. Tense monotony reigns, until Silverio returns from one of his regular hunting excursions, carrying the wounded Zoska (Monika Kowalska), a Polish national and member of the Republican international brigade. After her recovery, she dominates the two male antagonists with her sexuality and femininity. Zoska's warming influence coincides with the advent of summer. The attitudes of Silverio and Teo soften and merge. But the tension of the film is maintained, by the fear of Zoska's presence becoming known to the Nationalist command. Discovery could result in death for each of the trio. When Paulino, the supplier and courier of the outposts disappears, investigators become suspicious and Silverio and Zoska flee. Teo remains at the post, to deal with the aftermath.
Strained relationships arrested and transformed in a brief interlude of love and warmth, renewal of anxiety, and unresolved apprehension to the last second, all spent in a threatening and isolated landscape.
No comments:
Post a Comment