Alamar

This Mexican movie is meditative, beautifully shot, with an understated story of great power.
We follow the young Natan, we have the child's eye view. This allows some stunning shots of objects and the enviroment enlargened, the director wonderfully evokes the way a child experiences the world; weird little shapes, out of context feet (a beautiful moment) and so on. The director lets us dwell on the shots terrifically. It is all done in a most verite style, adding to a feel of documentary in the acting and plot that runs through. Indeed, it may be a documentary.
This could have been a piece of formalist genius of P.O.V. and long static shots had it not been for the fact that the director (quite understandably) chooses to show us some of the wonders he has filmed outside of the child's perspective. The images are always terrific, but this perhaps loses the narrative thread slightly; a minor problem, but one that moves this from being a disciplined masterwork to being a terrifically shot and calming joy.
And what a place he does choose to indulge on; these long static shots, the lifestlye that is presented as so iddylic. The 'story' in the background is all a couple of tiny suggestions that flower in the viewers mind. If you want a tough analysis of why the child is so, what the people's struggles are like, look elsewhere. O.K., it's hagiography, but of the finest subject. Not that we neglect the people; the fathers and children relation through a few hints develops, with little conflict but a lot of tactile understanding.
A real pleasure to sit through, pleasure is the word here. Highly reccommende for that.