A French woman inherits the remote, South American hacienda of her reclusive Aunt Oriane, and while preparing an inventory of the property recalls the summer when, still a teenager, she visited Oriane and tried (unsuccessfully) to pierce the mystery of her aunt's own shadowed adolescence. The first feature by director Fina Torres unfolds in layers of delicate, haunting flashbacks, with the memory of the young girl's visit leading back to the childhood of Oriane herself: her illicit romance with the adapted stable boy, and the violent response of her dictatorial father. The missing piece of the narrative puzzle, when it finally falls into place, not only solves the lingering mystery of the hacienda, but also neatly ties each flashback together, reminding us in elegant fashion how the past is never altogether past. Rarely has a debut film shown such confidence and maturity.
