Paso de ovejas

A simple story told in such a way that captures the audience, more a Directorial than a Screenwrite prize, Amir Galván produces yet another remarkable piece, after his "Lo que quedó de Pancho", a point blank, under-the-skin documentary, he comes back with an amazing fiction to show for that he's become a well rounded Director with a keen sense for compelling visuals.

Photography, Color Timing and VFX are splendidly carried out with Grade A manufacture, quite a feat for a five Photo-VFX crew which says a lot about how Mexican artists have advanced to enter the big boys when it comes to CG/VFX magic.

On the performances, Nicole shines, but this is not surprising if we take a look at her previous work, so does Cindi Huppel with her border-like characterization of Rose, strangely enough, the character portrayed by J. Garrido (one of the leads), resembles any and all of his previous work, even tho the Director manages to squeeze some truth out of him which permeates thru (quite a feat), he hits an impasse from which he never manages to recover.

On the supporting roles, both characters, the fisherman and the thief do a good job, although I would have liked to see a bit more in depth to what is the object on having the fisherman in the movie as it seems the movie could do without (Gerardo Martinez manages to pull through quite well although his character doesn't have much to do in the story.) All in all, worth to watch.

It is known around the world Mexican Productions are a struggle, the tiny budgets always imposing on quality and resources hindering Directors and Artists alike, it makes film-making a kind of rite-of-passage instead of a creation process, which turns out into a painful quality versus budget outcomes.

It is not the case of this film tho, The Director and his personal crew (below the execs), perform remarkably well pulling focus on high quality craftsmanship in every department even when the executive production falls back onto a cinema school which is famous for skimming off the top on student awarded budgets for internal benefit (and I'm not talking the students'), apparently, Amir Galvan's vision of traditional storytelling has nothing traditional about it (as shown in "Lo que quedó de Pancho", so far his most renowned work), he manages to immerse the audience in a well told story made out of tiny bit memories and facts the characters weave around them, now, this is usual for feature long films, take into account tho, that this type of parallel flashback-forward storytelling in an under 30 min piece is quite difficult.

The art is simple but right on, Photography is as classic as it can get with a Mexican imprinted artistry rounded with good craftsmanship, I've been told that it contains digital work (on the lines of CG and replacements) and this surprised me as it is very well integrated, The acting goes beyond the characters for a couple of moments but I take it it was just a miscast on some choices (probably constrained by the budget).

It seems Mexico could do with a new lab that provides affordable yet good processing as "Churubusco Azteca" has long fallen from grace.