Anything can become true cinema in the hands of a gifted filmmaker.
'Aqueronte' has no conventional story to speak of. It's just a heterogenous group of people with different backgrounds, stories, concerns and goals coming together for transportation across a river on a ferry. Director Manuel Muñoz Rivas takes this ordinary setup and transforms the boat trip into an epic journey through a display of pure filmmaking skill. From that long, hypnotizing opening shot, with the camera slowly moving through the misty landscape as the ferry departs, the tone is set. As the scenery changes throughout the boat trip, Rivas plays with the different lights, shadows and sounds to create poetic visuals and a hypnotic atmosphere. We are guided through the different phases of the day as this journey of seemingly mythical proportions continues. Is this ferry trip a metaphor for the crossing of the River Styx? This interpretation seems to be confirmed late in the film as the figure of Charon, the boatman who was tasked with guiding the dead across the River Styx in Greek mythology, is explicitly referred to in dialogue.
If isn't clear by now, 'Aqueronte' moves at a very deliberate pace and nothing really 'happens', so if you prefer films with a conventional narrative, you won't find anything you like here. And despite being under its spell for the most part, even I felt like things did drag a little in the middle portion of this short film. But ultimately, the good far outweighed the bad for me. This is slow, atmospheric cinema, a creative blending of image and sound that doesn't necessarily contain any obvious message or explicit commentary, but nonetheless manages to leave a unique impression on the viewer.
