Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Sueño en otro idioma / I Dream in Another Language

Sueño en otro idioma / I Dream in Another Language, dir. Ernesto Contreras, 2017 Mexico / Netherlands, 101 min., in Spanish with English subtitles 💖
Tuesday, June 20, 6:30 p.m., Castro Theatre: Bay Area première

Sueño en otro idioma / I Dream in Another Language
Martín, a linguist, travels to a village in the rainforest of southern Mexico to document Zikril, a (fictional) indigenous language on the brink of extinction. Only two elderly locals, Isauro and Evaristo, still speak it, but naturally they haven’t been on speaking terms for decades. Flashback scenes gradually unveil the origin of their discord as Martín tries to compel them to patch up their lifelong friendship, if only for the sake of preserving their language. The cinematography is as stunning as the natural landscape, and the attention to detail extended so far as to create a whole new language. I’ve always been fascinated by linguistics, but even if you aren’t, the human elements of the story are engaging and the conflict between indigenous culture and colonial influences is resonant. This film is definitely on my MUST SEE list.

Note regarding subtitles: a few very brief parts of the dialogue are in English without subtitles. The dialogue in the fictional Zikril language is also not subtitled, but that is a deliberate choice by the filmmakers to leave the audience guessing.

IMDb pageWikipedia [in English] • trailer

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