Between Two Waters (2018) Poster

User Reviews

Review this title
1 Review
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
5/10
Neorealist docudrama, showing the lives of two gypsy brothers in their twenties and contrasting perspectives on life .
ma-cortes20 October 2022
Isra (Israel Gómez Romero) and Cheíto (Francisco José Gómez Romero) are two brothers who have gone their separate ways . Isra has just been released from prison, it hurts him that only his eldest daughter recognizes him , and, worse yet, that his wife does not accept that he return home, expelling out and forcing him to live in a precarious hut that is flooded by high tides . ¨Entre Dos Aguas¨ retakes the previous roles from ¨La Leyenda del tiempo¨ with a chronicle of characters from the surroundings of the bay and the Cadiz marshes . With a strong moral background and far from any simple didacticism or morality, this ¨Between Two Waters¨ shows the difficult life of young people from working-class neighborhoods , from broken families and lacking the professional qualifications and educational level that would give them opportunities . As our two protagonists result to be are cannon fodder , victims of violent and fatalistic contexts , doomed to crime , or , in the best of cases, hard-working survivors who manage to overcome for love of family .

¨Entre dos aguas¨ or ¨Between Two Waters¨ (2018) is shot twelve years after ¨The legend of time¨, the latter was a documentary/fiction mix inspired by the flamenco singer Camarón ; complemented with Flamenco music and the great Camarón de la Isla , whose album gave that film its title. In The Legend of Time, when Isra comes home at night and after smoking get together , his brother predicts him a lousy future : "Do you know where I see you? In jail" to which she replies, "Well, I'm asking you" . At the same time , this intimate story of the off-the-wall adolescent gypsies was added the theme about world of flamencov. Lacuesta's essay not only questions formats , delivering a slow-moving and downbeat narration , though he also blatantly demonstrates the contradiction between truth and fiction , providing an overlong duration , and , tiring at times , since this fake documentary exudes authenticity enough . Dealing with Isra who comes out of prison and Cheíto's long mission in the navy comes to an end , they both return to the isle of San Fernando , their hometown . The brothers' reunion will refresh the memory of their father's violent death while they were still little boys , while the need for restoring and making it up with each other will bring them back together . As Cheíto has found employment in the Navy and is a baker on an amphibious assault ship. They are the same ones who , as teenagers , in 2006 appeared in the director's first feature film, ¨The Legend of Time¨that won several national and international awards . With a different , original tone that avoids sociologism or the ordinary newspaper supplement chronicle , ¨Between Two Waters¨ is an acceptable though boring as well as sad film due to its authenticity and strong truth , its ability for the viewer to empathize with two outlandish roles with complicated lives and do it without paternalism or avoiding deep emotivities . The dull action takes place in that same space of marshes crossed by bridges and trains that pass without stopping and there are quite a few themes in continuity , such as the tattoos, the difficult lives of the two brothers , the memory of the father's death , family problems , their kiddies , economic troubles , among others . As Lacuesta showing that offbeat truth has the emotional and moral dimension of dilemma and destiny that challenges the central roles . Isra understands what the dilemma is , that his brother , his friends and, above all, the family verbalize and make explicit to him , insisting on the difference between the options : either have a job and recover his wife and three daughters , or get involved in trafficking , theft and forms of easy money that , sooner or later , will carry him back in jail .

This ¨Entre Dos Aguas¨ had a peculiar realization , and , above all , in the best tradition of Italian neorealism , winning ¨The Golden Shell¨or la ¨Concha de Oro¨ at the San Sebastian Festival for the second time and revalidating Isaki Lacuesta's commitment and his especial career in cinema , an exploration of the nuances of fiction and non-fiction , in the border or equivocal territory , while partially disturbing with his premises to viewer , where it is not known at what point the happenings are told end and where the representation and the reality emerge . Regarding his commitment to the emotions and feelings of the characters, with a very strong moral background . The singular attitude in Lacuesta's works is very difficult to achieve : it is only available to solid filmmakers . Lacuesta has developed a especial filmography that includes documentary , Shorts , Movies and TV series , such as : Apagón (TV Series) , La veu latent (Short), Download Vilches (Short) ,Microscopias (Short), El acusado (TV Mini Series documentary) , El moviment perpetuo (Documentary), El cuaderno de barro (Documentary), Où en êtes-vous, Isaki Lacuesta? (Documentary short) , Un año, una noche , La próxima piel, Murieron por encima de sus posibilidades , Bajo escucha, Los pasos dobles , among others.
3 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed