Burwa dii ebo

I was lucky enough to see a pre-Sundance version of this film and it was just amazing: contemplative, compelling, provocative. It was shot in one of the most isolated indigenous communities in Central America, and made collaboratively by the indigenous people themselves and a Western filmmaker. So not only are the landscapes mind-boggling, but the whole story has an authenticity and immediacy that feel really rare.

The plot sounds crazy simple: island boy meets city girl, loves her, loses her... But this movie puts so much nuance in that tale--it's about tradition and modernity, economics, ecology, magic, coming of age and middle-age, a whole world. And every one of the secondary characters seems alive enough to warrant his or her own movie. It's obvious that the actors and the production team have really lived the story they are telling, and are passionate about telling it to the rest of us.

Cross your fingers that it comes to a theater near you!