El auge del humano

In this first feature film, Eduardo Williams pursues his perambulation dynamic which had already characterized his earlier short films, that had taken us through Argentina and Vietnam. Here we move from Buenos Aires to Mozambique and the Philippines. Three spaces are revealed successively, three realities unveiled through the lens of a young character and his links to his friends or his family. Outlined therein is his casual life, without tensions or sparkling moments, and everywhere is a shared desire. By interweaving characters, spaces (the city, the savanna, the jungle) and geographies, the film hints at the potentiality of common itineraries and communities regardless of distances. What also hint at this are the numerous, long walks which are being followed, walks where groups are made or unmade according to some organic dynamic. These are slow-paced movements conferring on the film its peculiar atmosphere, resting on smooth camera moves, on predominantly broad shots that imprint bodies into their environment, apparently following their gestures, their movement. Williams gives these bodies, these spaces and movements a sensual, at times dream-like quality, sometimes verging on the hypnotic. As a consequence he hurls us, as in the rising waters at the beginning of the film, into a liquid world (water likewise is at the film’s end) wherein desires circulate, possibly to some vanishing points, both geographical and mental, as the finale suggests. (NF)