Film Difficulty 5

To help you ease your way into our world, we have devised a the film difficulty ranking system to rate the difficulty of each film reviewed on our site. The easiest to watch films (the Rom-Coms and Superhero flicks that you watch anyway) will have a rating of 1. Foreign language films automatically add one point, as do black and white films, and films with strange and hard to follow plots. Welcome to the top of the mountain – Film Difficulty 5.

Film Difficulty Ranking 5: Want to show-off in front of your film-loving friends? These films might just be for you. Very hard to get into and watch, these films are for the upper echelon of film critics, that dissect every minute to find every piece of glory. These films are like analyzing Ulysses or translating Kant.

Once you’ve mastered these films, you’ve achieved your FilmRoot bragging rights.

Eldorado XXI – Peru’s Modern Version of the American West

Eldorado XXI Film Difficulty Ranking: 5

The American West is still alive today in Peru. Migrants from across the country are flocking to the highest settlement in the world for their ‘American dream’ (their rags to riches story). However, the only thing most people find is an incredibly harsh landscape. Check it out below.

Why Watch Eldorado XXI?

You’re into ‘Slow Film‘ and want to see more!
To see a film from Peru – and our first feature from this diverse South American country on FilmRoot
Experience a little of Peruvian mountain life
If you’re fascinated by the American West and the Gold Rush

The Breakdown

ElDorado XXI starts with a 25 minute still shot of miners walking up and down a mountain in the darkness. All you can make out is the vague silhouette of their bodies and the mountain from their headlamps. Whilst we watch these miners ramble up and down in the dark we hear the story of one of them.

One of them arrived at Rinconada (the mine) a few months ago after they hit bankruptcy in the city. They heard the rags to riches stories of people finding gold at the Rinconada mine and followed their version of the ‘American dream.’

Unfortunately for them, finding riches was not as easy as in the stories they had heard. They were homeless for parts and had to spend months away from their children, left with relatives in the city. The only thing they could do was work for longer and pray for luck.

That’s when you hear some strange stories about superstitions and rituals that some of the miners use to help their luck. Sacrificing Alpaca fetuses apparently bring luck, but a human fetus would ‘be more effective’. Welcome to the Peruvian wild west!

Conclusion

Eldorado XXI gives you an idea of what life is like in the Peruvian mountains – the modern equivalent of the American wild-west. People flock to this beautiful landscape in search of quick riches, but most of them never strike gold. You’ll see the life and community these migrants have formed and hear of the weird rituals that they try to boost their luck. Well worth a watch.

Ruinas Tu Reino – Deconstructing Latin American Cinema

Ruinas Tu Reino Film Difficulty Ranking: 5

We don’t believe in a cinema that yells “¡Viva la revolución!” but in one that instead formally critiques the structures that originally created the profound injustice that exists today.
Pedro Escoto, Director of Ruinas Tu Reino

If you’re not familiar with slow film or meditative cinema, the lack of story line and raw experimental shots of Ruinas Tu Reino might prove to be too much of a challenge. The long shots of the sea and fishermen sitting around makes the film feel more like a film exhibit you’d see in a modern art museum. However, if you have the patience to observe, you’ll find a film imbued with poetry; literally in words that appear on screen, and visually in the meditative shots of the fisherman’s existence. It’s a film that seeks to deconstruct Latin American cinema by transcending historical narratives, reverting to DIY production, and focusing on the power of very raw images.

To get more from this film, I strongly recommend reading Ela Bittencourt’s profile of Pablo Escoto for Lyssaria and also Pedro Escoto’s interview with Pedro Segura for Ojos Abiertos (in Spanish).

From: Mexico, North America
Watch: Trailer, Letterboxd, Vimeo (via Tweet from Director with Password)
Next: Mysterious Object at Noon, Too Early, Too Late, El Dorado XXI

An Investigation On the Night that Won’t Forget

Investigation on the Night that won’t Forget Film Difficulty Ranking: 5

Image result for an investigation on a night that wont forget

Lav Diaz is always a challenge to watch, so don’t start watching this on a first date. He is the master of slow-cinema, so expect long takes (55 minutes to be precise) and silence. I’d recommend checking out the more Filipino Elegy to the Visitor of the Revolution or even the 7 hour Melancholia before this one. In contrast, Investigation on the Night that Won’t Forget is a documentary centring on Erwin’s story.

Why Watch this Film?

For another film from the master of slow-cinema – Lav Diaz
It’s an exploration of spontaneous storytelling and cinema’s role in documenting memory
There’s a very poetic and cinematic prayer to end the film
Hear about the struggle against Filipino bureaucracy and politics

The Breakdown

This film opens with the title card: “Part 1: Cradle of Memory”. Erwin sits uncomfortably in a chair in the middle of a small office, framed by a door frame. There are many books piled on his desk as he starts to tell us the story of two of his friends who were murdered in their own home.

The interview is shot in one long 55 minute take. He speaks in a mixture of English and Tagalog, often switching between the two mid-sentence. He pauses every once in a while as he either tries to remember details or to reflect. Erwin is not interrupted for the whole take. We hear all of the story that his memory can recount. He actually states that “it’s good that we are recording as my memory is failing,” emphasising that we only hear what he can remember.

Lav Diaz uses one long take to show the fragility and spontaneity of memory. One minute Erwin is confident in what he says, only to recount the same detail as he remembers more. Erwin’s natural, spontaneous narrative, is evidence that every source is limited. We do not doubt anything he says, but his many corrections and pauses indicate that his memory may have forgotten some details. Lav Diaz presents film as an answer, as he documents Erwin’s story to protect it from further decay.

Conclusion

Lav Diaz’s slow films are a challenge to watch, and this one proves to be no exception. However, where there is a challenge, there is often a reward. In this case, it is a chance to explore memory and narrative; how events are remembered and how they can be reconstructed from the depths of the mind.

All the Cities of the North (Bosnia) Life in an Abandoned Resort

All the Cities of the North Film Difficulty Ranking: 5

If you want to take a step into the world of slow film, I recommend reading our introduction here first. If you’re already a veteran of slow film, or are looking to tick off Bosnia from your film map All the Cities of the North may be for you. Let me know what you find!

Image result for all the cities of the north

Why Watch All the Cities of the North?

To see a film from Bosnia (a first for FilmRoot)
If you’ve seen a few of the Slow Films on FilmRoot and want to see more!
You’re not after a fast-paced thriller, but a reflective film where the most exciting moment is when a guy blows into a bottle
For something to meditate to

The Breakdown

This film opens with a still shot of a man sleeping in a tent. Slowly he starts to move and you see a compilation of shots showing him: sharpening a stick, eating berries off of a tree, and washing the tent. It’s not thrilling stuff, this is the world of slow film.

As per a typical slow film, there’s little dialogue and a lot of long shots in which nothing much happens. In this case, there is no dialogue, the talking you hear is a couple of contemplative narratives.

The film takes place at an abandoned holiday resort in the former Yugoslavia. Two men camp and live together on the resort and what we see is the mundane things they do there, from berry picking to washing.

The only break from the script comes in a few shots of one of the weird complexes that Yugoslavia built in Lagos. The complex in Lagos also now in disrepair, but like the Yugoslav complex, local people have started living here. Whether this is symbolic of the fall of communism or renewal is never clear.

Conclusion

If you’re interested in learning about slow film, I recommend starting with our introduction to slow film. If you’re already a veteran then you may find something in this film that I missed. Perhaps it was because I wasn’t able to watch this film in a whole sitting that I didn’t find as much in it as A Mysterious Object at Noon or From What is Before. If you find something interesting, please comment below!