A mysterious, empty house in the Basque Country. A caretaker watches over it. The local priest comes to visit. They exchange ideas, stories and advice. The history of the building emerges through fragments of conversations, the texture of the walls and furniture, the fabric of the curtains, the glimpses of the garden and the world beyond the house. ‘History is slow and life is fast’ comments one of the film’s characters and indeed the pleasures of Aita’s poetic journey come from watching the interaction of the two men amidst the wider secrets of the house. From the different spaces and sounds, from the play between light and shadows, something more than history emerges. Cinema comes into play as a character of its own, bringing its ghosts into the landscape of the film. The result is a haunting contemplative essay that moves between that which we see and that which we imagine. —BFI
An interview with José María de Orbe.
Photo by Fabrizio Maltese/EF Press/fabriziomaltese.com. To call it by its full name, the Festival Internacional de cine de Donostia-San Sebastián
