B24

Here is a short film that aims at transcendance less through visual effects and more through an intelligent script. Indeed, much of it plays out in the half light surrounding an ordinary conversation between two individuals. In another sense, it could be a young adult almost creating a dialogue with himself. The use of "quebrado" (broken) implies an existence of disparate parts of a whole that needs to be put back in good order. One must judge in time if the film has met its goal.

A polemic in the form of a melodrama is never satisfactory. Technical excellence cannot overcome the weakness of trying to pass off this creepy mishmash as worthy cinema. Scenes dart forth and back in a confusing sequence from one time to another in a dizzying manner, ultimately reaching a cautionary conclusion : This will happen to you if you fool around with Mother Nature. Of course it is possible to accept this film as a documentary. If so it stands on its own rather well. And there are moments in which positive human values are played out nicely. A student of social history will find much to admire in how the lessons of an historic outrage against justice are portrayed.

If this film is about rugby, it lacks substance in spite of much attention to the game. If it's about infidelity, it does portray a chilly season of the year. That sort of sums it up. But the production values are quite high for a low-budget film. And the acting far exceeds a script that hovers alternately somewhere between incoherence and implausibility. Infidelity as a theme should probably not command heavy attention within a Christmas tale of sin and forgiveness. Avarice and other human transgressions yes, but not infidelity. The main character seems just confused, however, and all that's left is a litter of damaged egos.