Spuzzlightyear
Although this starts out promisingly, a woman in a car is weaving around dark roads in the middle of the night in the middle of the forest until she almost hits a man holding a lizard! This gave me the impression that we were going to see something special, something almost David Lynchian (if there is such a term), but unfortunately, the film starts to go everyplace, not having a core center, just sort of meandering story about a woman trying to solve a mystery of a small town. The character study goes all over the place, and I couldn't really care for any of the characters it seems, especially when some of the story all of a sudden goes into flashback mode. I had some hopes for this movie, but all in all, it was a bit of a letdown.
lafatm3
Wow, I'm kind of shocked to read so many negative reviews of this movie. Maybe you had to see it in Spain as I did or maybe you have to enjoy movies that make you think. This is not your generic Hollywood-I-understand-everything-within-ten-minutes type of movie. This is a movie that one has to think about and contemplate after it is done and it might take several days to come across what you think the movie was actually trying to say. That, in my opinion, is a sign of a good movie. Obaba is not an actual place, it is a state of mind. Once people understand that, they can see the movie for what it is: an intelligent, beautiful, and mysterious view of northern Spain.
fnorful
This set of several stories is well conveyed by use of flashbacks. Lourdes' pursuit of the villagers' stories for her film project sets up several different story lines with no small amount of intersection in this remote mountain village.But there are no real surprises in these stories in that the use of "magical realism" is used inconsistently. Some stories are resolved logically and others remain unresolved by rational explanations. The film suffers a little in not making up its mind about whether to be magical or not.It's still a good movie but not a great one. I think it would be worth picking up Axtaga's Obabakoak collection to get a fuller view of this (potentially) mysterious place.
penyberth
This is a beautiful film, evocative of life in a rural Basque village, based on the book Obabakoak, by Bernardo Atxaga. It is a fine film, rich in symbolism.The audience was quite involved and interested. This was in Bilbao, and the film was dubbed into Euskera (Basque) with no subtitles.It's vitally important to do more films in threatened languages such as Euskera. Atanarjuat was made in Inuktitut, Hedd Wyn in Welsh. Both were a success both critically and popularly. Since Atxaga is the author who has put Basque literature on the map, his film should and could have been made in Basque.
AD
