Japón

An unnamed painter leaves Mexico City for a mountain village in order to kill himself. He moves in with an elderly woman. The man who came to die goes on staying. Carlos Reygadas's first film. None of the cast are professionals; Magdalena Flores plays the woman. It was shot on 16mm and anamorphic, producing a wide, textured and deliberately coarse image. The landscapes are held in long takes. The story explains nothing: why he wants to die is never said, and how his decision changes is not shown. The film describes a state rather than a reason. The long tracking shot at the end is its most discussed passage and the beginning of the formal interest that continues through Reygadas's later work. It took a special mention for the Camera d'Or at Cannes and brought the director into international cinema. Who it is for: viewers curious about severe auteur cinema and recent Mexican film. Who it is not for: anyone looking for narrative; the film is almost entirely atmosphere and some scenes are deliberately hard to watch.