An enigma is killed by the solution and kept alive by the enigma itself. But an enigma without a solution is not even an enigma. Grace consists in keeping intact the possibility of a response without ever falling into the temptation of actually responding. The vine, by Alberto Gracia, It is essentially a mystery, a riddle that runs across the screen like a faint threat, like a shared secret, like an uncertain promise. Like all that and, as has already been said, like an enigma.
But all of the above would not make sense, beyond the pedestrian lyricism, if it were not also one of those films that is quietly there to mark the year of Spanish cinema. With the official Cannes competition just announced and with the not-so-distant memory of the Berlinale, the latest production by this Galician director placed on the Novo Cinema list can boast of being the only one that has entered an official section of an international festival. He did it in Rotterdam and, from there, he has jumped from competition to competition until he appeared on the roster of the next and far away Jeonju.
The story of Damin (Alfonso Mguez) is told; the story of a man who, tired of living poorly in a big city, decides to return to his native Ferrol as soon as he receives the news of his father’s death. In truth, this story is told just at the moment when the TV game show in which he participates goes public. His story is told, we said, and that of Cosme, a man who committed suicide and by whom Damin is mistaken again and again. Damin is Cosme and Cosme will never know who he is. Meanwhile, an oil platform crashes into the bridge that connects Ferrol with the world; meanwhile, a group of blind people swarm around, lost in his blindness; meanwhile, love, and death, and flies.
The film begins in darkness and the director of the arrogance and also deeply enigmatic The Fifth Evanxeo by Gaspar Hauser Let the viewer decide where it is. In the middle of the night? In the middle of a tunnel? In deep space? And so on until we discover (this mystery does have a solution) that we see with the eyes of blind people who walk. The next thing you hear is the legend that justifies the name of the Chamorro hermitage. Xa hill! (I’m already dead) is what a sailor shouted just before being saved by the virgin. And then a death that is suicide. And then a television program with questions. And then… Damin’s story.
It is legend, it is mystery and it is ruin. Deeply beautiful, deeply funny and deeply profound.
In his meticulous bewilderment, The film advances sowing enigmas with a precision very close to enthusiasm. The superb photography of Soda ion supported by the disturbing and ironic music of Jonay Armas They act as a counterpoint to a story in which the images seek their meaning behind the words and the words seek their justification in the melodies of popular songs. La Parra is the name of the pension where Damín sleeps; The vine It is the Spanish film of the year. Until now. There will be more, but this enigma must be solved. Or not, that’s why it’s an enigma.