Movie No. 7 (2015): JAUJA

Jauja (2014)
Director: Lisandro Alonso
Cast: Viggo Mortensen
In Spanish and Danish, with English subtitles

The film begins with showing sporadic images of a Danish captain and her teenaged daughter in one frame and of three other soldiers in different states of busyness in separate cramped frames. A little later is the revelation that they are all in one group, in a rocky shore; they hold captive a young Spanish soldier. Then the teenaged daughter runs away with the Spanish soldier into the desert where an infamous soldier gone mad is on the loose and where the murderous so-called "coconut heads" thrive. And there's a war going on. And so the captain's search for his daughter begins.

The costumes suggest 19th Century. The war is unnamed. And the unnamed desert is pictured to be vast, mostly flat, but with some rocky slopes at some point.

All of the images appear like framed pictures. Each shot has screen residence time that puts patience to test. They call it slow cinema. These long shots and wide shots, cramped in 4 x 3 frames, are collectively a poetry. And, like in most poetry the meaning is concealed and may be subject to different interpretations. The last few frames of the movie suggest a plunged into a deeper realm. This is either jaw-dropping or head-scratching in disbelief, surprise, or awe.

Rating: 3.0/4.0

Date seen: January 3, 2015