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★★★★
Directed by: #EzequielYanco
Written by: #EzequielYanco
Starring: #UrielAlcaraz #IsaíasBarroso #AngelBaigorria #BrianLlambia #BrianAlcaraz #RodrigoAmitrano #MabelBaigorria #JeremíasBarroso #CatalinaPerez #LuanaBaigorria
Review by: Joyce Cowan
La Vida en Común is a hypnotic, magical blend of documentary and fiction.
One of the marks of a great documentary is posing as many questions as it answers, and La Vida en Común does exactly that. Written by Argentine documentary film maker Ezequiel Yanco, it follows a group of teenagers from the midland province of La Pampa, descendants of the Ranquel People (Native Americans), who want to hunt a puma as an initiation rite into adulthood. The youngest of the boys, Uriel, narrates in the rhythmical, understated tones of the Ranquel People’s Spanish. His curious, mysterious and questioning tone make this a story you cannot stop listening to. ‘A puma doesn’t kill for food’, he begins, ‘It kills because it can’. The centrality of the phrase and the question of its truth holds the documentary together, and the viewer’s attention.
What or who does the puma symbolise? This question is the tool with which we can peel the many layers of this brilliant film. The first layer is culture, for the Ranquel People were hunters, and this is on lost on the boys: hunting, or the practice of hunting, is a main pastime for them. The second layer is freedom and the experience of it. The boys are definitely free living in the prairies of La Pampa, but is this enough for them? The third layer is the relation between people and nature. The puma is today a threatened species, and an icon of Argentina’s conservation work, so it is no coincidence that the writer has chosen it as key character in the documentary narrative.
The cinematography is wonderful. Yanco makes the most of the endless plains of the Argentinian midlands by employing breathtaking extreme wide shots, including one of thunderstorm in the distance- a visual representation of the power of nature. These are landscapes into which the characters blend seamlessly but forcefully at the same time (the definition of youth?) which is a feat. The building which Yanco chose to film, and film in, at some points in the documentary is also eye catching and evocative.
La Vida en Común is a many-layered, powerfully conceptual and observational work of art- anyone expecting straightforward social commentary will be disappointed. It is not historical and does not consist of data. Argentina has a strong tradition of documentary filmmaking and this particular piece does it justice beautifully.
La Vida en Común is screening as part of the Visability Film Festival 2021.
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