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Derek Malcolm's rating
Delightful dumb show
By
Derek Malcolm
15 May 2008
A fabulous homage to expressionist noir from Argentina by way of the Moon. Esteban Sapir links voicelessness and trash TV to fascism, and the complex, if jokey, thesis unfolds beautifully thanks to slinky black-and-white visuals and a cast who play things absolutely straight.
Like the rest of the population, young Ana (Sol Moreno) and her TV repairman dad are unable to speak. Now, two spells of luck (one bad, one good) pit them against insatiable media tycoon Mr TV.
The latter plans to send everyone to sleep via a song from a faceless, Rita Hayworth-like siren. But our heroes stumble across a secret weapon: a blind boy, Tomas (Jonathan Sandor), who has a powerful voice of his own. Can an allbut defunct aerial transmit his cries and save the masses?
Ana looks as old and wise as an owl. Tomas resembles those blind-boy collection boxes from the Seventies. As in Pan’s Labyrinth, the film presents us with children who are both down-to-earth and eerily vulnerable. Their sense of the world as magical and sinister is persuasive; their daytime terrors prove dreamily, urgently, to the point.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
