The Legend of Time (2006) La leyenda del tiempo

Director: Isaki Lacuesta
Writer: Isaki Lacuesta
Stars: Israel Gómez Romero, Francisco José Gómez Romero, Jesús Olvera Mota

A documentary/fiction mix inspired by the flamenco singer Camarón.

Named after legendary flamenco singer Camarón de la Isla's groundbreaking record album (which, in turn, was inspired by the works of Andalusian poet, Federico García Lorca), Isaki Lacuesta's The Legend of Time melds the improvised encounters of Johan van der Keuken's ethnographic documentaries with the quotidian intimacy of Mercedes Álvarez's El cielo gira to create a understated, yet meticulously observed meditation on grief, identity, and self-expression. Composed of two, self-contained chapters capture the disparate lives of figurative outsiders from Camarón's ancestral hometown of San Fernando, Cádiz - a gypsy boy, Isra who decides to honor his father's memory by refraining from singing during the family's self-imposed period of mourning, and a young Japanese woman, Makiko who leaves her ailing father behind in order to follow in the footsteps of Camarón and learn cante by immersing herself in the culture - the film is also a lucid and thoughtful essay into the inalterable nature of change, resonance, and connectedness.

Isaki Lacuesta's second feature is the best Spanish movie of the year along with Albert Serra's "Honor de cavalleria". The starting scene awakes all your senses and maybe you could keep quiet at the end of the screening. It's a beautiful chant for loss things that Lacuesta's films like they were impossible dreams. Many great moments, some drops of Depardon, mixed with Guerin and maybe Kiarostami gave birth a masterpiece and one of the most exciting movies of the year. I am Spanish and i don't like flamenco… this wonderful film makes me doubtful. I ask myself questions about things that i believed that don't interest me. It's the effect of art.

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