Director: Camila Beltrán
Year: 2024
Country: Colombia/France
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Plot:
Living in a Bogota suburb, a young woman trying to mind her religious teachings at school and the messages about growing up her parents keep telling her which is soon turned into a troubling fight for her sanity when the religious fervor about an upcoming eclipse is the cause of her distress.
Review:
This was a rather strong and intriguing genre effort. One of the best features of this one is the rather intriguing setup that allows for this one to start a wholly involved storyline. The idea of generating an immersive look at the mindset of the community around her, with the constant inclusion of the Church and its teachings hammering home the mentality of their beliefs which include purity and the opportunity to present yourself lovingly to God is used rather well here against the secondary storyline about her growing up. As she deals with the similar trials and tribulations of growing up as a young girl in this environment, this becomes all the more harrowing with how the others around her treat the situation as the constant influx of religious hysteria over the supposed end of the world due to the impending eclipse and the normal tribulations of growing up conflict against her.
That ends up causing the film to tread off very familiar ground in regards to how it treats burgeoning sexuality and puberty with oncoming horror. The horror of how her body is changing and growing being a result of either the burgeoning world around her targeting her unfairly or the unwanted feelings of growing up and getting older comes off incredibly well but it’s not all that original. Dozens of other films have taken a similar route to the material in recent years which makes for a somewhat formulaic and predictable role that carries throughout here and really lets this one rely solely on the religious connotations to keep itself going that keep things reliant on these cliches. Combined with the low-budget limitations that are present throughout here which does not detract heavily from the film does impact it overall, these do bring it down somewhat.
Overview: ***.5/5
A generally strong coming-of-age genre tale, there’s quite a lot to like here so long as the lack of originality in this type of material isn’t a huge detriment to your enjoyment. Those who are fine with this kind of presentation or are fans of this style will have the most to enjoy here while only those turned off by these factors should heed caution.
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