Wadley

Along a track, in the dawn light, a young man aged about thirty walks towards us. He passes a village, then walks on into the void. To judge by his modern backpack, he must be a city dweller.
In front of him is an endless desert of cactuses; on the horizon is a mountain chain. He asks the way and heads deeper into the desert until he reaches an oasis. Later we see him searching the undergrowth looking for peyote cactus. He eats the cactus that became legendary thanks to Carlos Castenada and Hunter S. Thompson among others, but has been known since pre-Columbian times for its hallucinogenic effect. Everyone thinks the little plant with mescaline tastes awful (William Burroughs: ‘Horrible stuff. Made me sick like I wanted to die’) but it’s also supposed to provide a deep spiritual self-insight.
Inspired by the films of for instance Abbas Kiarostami, Lisandro Alonso or Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Matias Meyer made a film virtually without dialogue in which man is confronted with himself, his loneliness and the overwhelming landscape. The beautiful long takes are impressive, even if we don’t know anything about the protagonist, apart from what we see. His motivation to do what he does remains obscure. Yet the result is clear and powerful, like awakening from a drug high. (GT)