Leones

Leones is the feature-film debut of Jazmín López, whose second feature Si yo fuera el invierno mismo screened recently in IFFR 2020’s Tiger Competition. Like her second film, Leones draws our attention to the language of cinema. It unfolds beautifully and mysteriously, like a puzzle.

In the film, five young people wander through a forest, as if they’ve entered a board game whose rules have yet to be revealed. Glimpses of sound and objects slowly bring to the surface what they’re looking for, and where they’ve ended up. 

IFFR programmer Bianca Taal describes the film as follows.
“The camera dances around the group and scans their surroundings. Sounds from the forest and from the sound recorder someone carries along form a key element of the film. Each camera movement and each snapping branch has its own place in this composition – and all of it has been carefully scripted. The essence of Leones lies not in its plot, but in its mise-en-scène, images, sounds and rhythm delineating the strange new world in which these young people find themselves. It is an existential film about youth, about being stuck, about beauty, life and death.”

Leones was made with support from IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund.