Anna Bello on Obaba

Here you have a review on the movie "Obaba".

It was published at Nine O'Clock:

An emotional trip to the heart of the Basques

One of this week's advance-premieres is a film that was shown in the Shadows sections of TIFF 2006

published in issue 3719 page 12 at 2006-07-11

“Obaba, or the Hidden Land” is a European film to the very heart, and you will love every minute of it. An investigative trip to a mysterious, isolated Basque hill town populated by eccentrics (and a fair dash of lizards) becomes a mesmerizing and evocative experience for protagonist and viewer alike in Montxo Armendariz’s wonderful screen treatment “Obaba,” a delicately fashioned look at memory and identity that creates an alternative world. The film carefully unlocks the past to study its effect on the present. The production’s fresh vision and fusion of regional charm with magic realism should ensure art house interest from viewers.

University student Lourdes heads for Obaba with her camera to complete a video assignment. Even before she’s arrived, things start to turn strange: driving up the lonely forested road to the village, she runs into Ismael, owner of the local hostel, clutching a lizard and darkly muttering that Obaba is “87 bends” away. When she asks for directions from elderly Tomas, his sister Begona hysterically informs her that he’s deaf because, as a schoolboy, Ismael put a lizard in his ear that devoured part of his brain - a shocking, absurd notion, but one that seems to be borne out by an old photo hanging in the hostel.

This peculiar way of looking at life affects Lourdes more and more strongly as things proceed. She falls in love with happy-go-lucky Miguel, whose mother mysteriously leaves flowers on the grave of a dead German engineer. The sense is of a community that has evolved independently of the outside world and which follows its own rules - which makes it both charming and dangerous. Given that Lourdes is an outsider, the inhabitants of Obaba open up to her a little too easily. Their stories are the substance of three self-contained 1960’s flashbacks, stories interesting to Lourdes because they deal with people who, like herself, are marginal to Obaba life. Each adopts a different visual aesthetic.

The film is based on the bestselling novel “Obabakoak” by Bernardo Atxaga.

The transition from the complex narrative of a novel to a two hour film is handled masterfully, as the director maintains the novel’s central point about the importance of stories in defining ourselves.

The director’s affection for the world he has created is evident, and superbly rendered by great cinematography, signed by Javier Aguirresarobe’s master lenses. Overall, this will not be your average summer film treat, as it is as far away from Hollywood as any respectable European production should be, but nevertheless, you will find it enjoyable and heartwarming.

m Obaba (Spain 2005); Directed by Montxo Armendariz; With Pilar Lopez de Ayala, Barbara Lennie; Distributed by Transylvania Film

by Anna Bello

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