Expanding on the hybrid narrative of his remarkable debut Dark Skull (Locarno in Los Angeles 2017), Kiro Russo has mounted a monumental, gently mystical portrait of the contemporary central South American cityscape and those who work within its bowels and environs. Set in the alternately harsh and beautiful terrain of La Paz, Bolivia and its surrounding rural areas, El Gran Movimiento follows a young miner as he looks for work alongside his friends, even as he begins to descend into a mysterious sickness. With its marvelous long-lens zoom work and increasingly dynamic, rhythmic editing, Russo’s film is a hypnotic journey into a psychological space that touches upon the supernatural.
Official Selection: Venice, San Sebastian, NYFF, Vienna.
A thoroughly idiosyncratic and elliptical approach to the city symphony.
- Ryan Swen, InReviewOnline
A work both fascinating in its suggestions and beautiful in its compositions.
- Soham Gadre, The Film Stage
Luminous... akin to experiencing a kind seance, a communing with an otherworldly realm.
- Leonardo Goi, MUBI Notebook
[A] captivating cinematic opus... Russo imposes brilliant cinematographic personality and [a] highly original gift for conveying atmosphere.
- Fabian Lemercier, Cineuropa
Russo’s particular spin on hybridity grants his nonprofessional actors the freedom to inhabit both real and imaginary realms, subject and character becoming synonymous.
- Jay Kuehner, Cinema Scope
(Available to download after screening date)