El cielo gira

Mercedes Alvarez was three years old when, in the late 1960s, her parents left La Aldea, a village in the barren Northern Spanish Soria region. She was the last child born in La Aldea. Now only fourteen people live there, a last dying generation. Soon this village, like so many other rural communities all over the world, will be deserted and will probably disappear from the map. Alvarez returns for the first time to her ancestral home and makes a stunning film about memory and the terrifying passing of time. Those who want to capture time also have to be patient: the camera records the conversations and activities of the last villagers, the conversion of the old castle into a hotel that might breathe new life into the area, sees Iberian Celtic remains in the landscape, but also sees the American bombers high in the sky on their way to Baghdad at the time of the invasion of Iraq. In Alvarez’ painterly eye for the elements and the seasons, one can recognise similarities with the work of Victor Erice. And then there is a painter Pello Azketa, who is slowly going blind, and will soon not be able to work any more. For him, things are starting to disappear. He walks through the village, feels things and starts one more painting. (GT)