Review: La Leon

Even if there were nothing else to recommend La Leon, an eerie drama by Argentine director Santiago Otheguy, it might be worth seeing just for its gorgeous monochromatic tone. It's nominally a "black and white" movie, but in fact there isn't a spot of black in it. Everything, from the rippling water to the lush vegetation and the weathered main characters, is a sort of bronze or gunmetal. It's fascinating to look at throughout the 85-minute running time and a great example of the creative possibilities presented by digital video.

But there's so much more. The cinematography is beautiful, contrasting off-kilter close-ups with languid shots of boats going up and down a river. A distinct plot keeps the movie on course even as it drifts between vague moods of gloom and doom. The main actors are excellent.

Quiet Alfaro (Jorge Roman) lives on a stretch of river that time seems to have forgotten, quietly helping elderly Iribarren (Jose Munoz) harvest reeds. He's wiry and middle-aged, with deep lines in his face and a look of resignation. The opposite pole of the movie is the bellicose, barrel-chested El Turu (Daniel Valenzuela), who pilots La Leon, a riverboat seemingly from another age. As the modern world encroaches on the island where they've lived all their lives, the changes draw them toward each other and their fates.

La Leon is like a combination of Tropical Malady, The Last Picture Show, and Touch of Evil. Though it never crosses the line into the supernatural, there's enough social isolation, shadowy motivation, and colonial detritus to draw the viewer in like a bottomless swamp. Some elements of the story will be familiar to fans of queer cinema, but, at least for a South American film novice, the lion's share of this movie is exquisitely strange.