★★★☆☆ Jazmín López's Leones (2012) is just one of several challenging and inventive Argentinian films to play at this year's East End Film Festival. Consisting of less than twenty takes spread across a relatively short 82-minutes, López's study of time and spirituality transcends conventional narrative filmmaking to good, if not stellar effect. We're not so much introduced to Leones' company of five young friends as thrust into their world as they wander through a secluded forest. We become immersed in their private games as the group search for a secluded house hidden deep within this fertile wilderness - the end of the line.
The characters of Leones ebb and flow across the frame like memories fading in/out of recollection, often reappearing miraculously in expanses that - by the laws of physics - should be impossible. Their meandering seems to be leading them in circles, their search for this mysterious...
The characters of Leones ebb and flow across the frame like memories fading in/out of recollection, often reappearing miraculously in expanses that - by the laws of physics - should be impossible. Their meandering seems to be leading them in circles, their search for this mysterious...
- 7/6/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Leones
Directed by Jazmín López
Argentina/France/Netherlands, 2012
An assured debut feature from Argentinian director Jazmin Lopez, Leones free-floats between complementary realms of the natural and supernatural. The entire movement, comprised of very few long, tracking shots within 80 minutes, chugs through the barely navigable forest of an unknown location, as six teenagers make their way toward a destination only they know, or perhaps don’t know at all. Of equal uncertainty is who they are or where they’ve come from, the only visible clue a crumpled BMW that may have crashed at the journey’s beginning. One can’t be sure, and neither can the kids themselves. Onward they march, playing word games to keep themselves occupied, expressing nothing of much importance.
Who are these people? The camera traipses around the greenery alongside them, tracing one individual, then another, becoming occasionally side-tracked by the allure of the natural forest.
Directed by Jazmín López
Argentina/France/Netherlands, 2012
An assured debut feature from Argentinian director Jazmin Lopez, Leones free-floats between complementary realms of the natural and supernatural. The entire movement, comprised of very few long, tracking shots within 80 minutes, chugs through the barely navigable forest of an unknown location, as six teenagers make their way toward a destination only they know, or perhaps don’t know at all. Of equal uncertainty is who they are or where they’ve come from, the only visible clue a crumpled BMW that may have crashed at the journey’s beginning. One can’t be sure, and neither can the kids themselves. Onward they march, playing word games to keep themselves occupied, expressing nothing of much importance.
Who are these people? The camera traipses around the greenery alongside them, tracing one individual, then another, becoming occasionally side-tracked by the allure of the natural forest.
- 7/4/2013
- by Ed Doyle
- SoundOnSight
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