User Reviews

"Los Ojos del Camino" or "The Eyes of the Journey" is a new Peruvian movie that premiered back in 2017 already, but took until May 2018 to make it to Germany finally. It runs for slightly under 1.5 hours and was written and directed by Rodrigo Otero Heraud and it is his first full feature work. This one takes us on a spiritual journey with Hipólito Peralta Ccama through the Andean Mountains, so the visual side here is by definition impressive already on more than just a few occasions. The central character is fine too, but the one problem I had with this one was crucial, namely that I don't think it really is worth seeing for those who do not have a strong conenction with spiritualism already before seeing it. I know I did not and as a consequence I struggles with moment when there is talk about stones with hearts, roads with eyes etc. Nature and how the man at the core of the film (and his people) perceives it is really essential here. It is so essential that the other solid moments, such as when we see a group of people working together for achieving a common goal, which may seem small to us, but feels big to them, are just not as frequent enough, even if they are as good, to let me enjoy the movie otherwise. It is all about the spiritualism and even those scenes like the one I just mentioned are somewhat linked to it. So maybe they could have found a way to make the film easier accesible for the big masses, including myself. But then again, you probably have to blame the big masses for their lack of spiritual impact on the inside and not the filmmaker, let alone the protagonist. I hope this explains the title of my review. For me personally, it was not a great watch, not even a good one unfortunately, but I can totally see other people with a deep interest in the subject enjoying it. You just should not expect anything that really will take you into the matter here out of nowhere. Also despite the film's origin not a film I'd recommend to Peruvians in particular. It's far more about what I mentioned already repeatedly than about the nation, the country or certain sights. Also a bit surprised this has not garnered really the great deal of awards reception as i would have expected. Maybe the subject is indeed too specific. I think you can skip the watch this time.