by Annette Basile
Worth: $17.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Spanish Film Festival
Cast:
Sergi López, Alfredo Castro, Almundena González, Joaquín Acebo
Intro:
… a gritty, ultimately uplifting coming-of-age fable.
A Ravaging Wind begins with an arresting and stunningly realised opening scene – so good that you wonder if the rest if the rest of the film can live up to it…
It begins with Reverend Pearson (veteran Chilean actor Alfredo Castro), a travelling evangelist, conducting an exorcism in a makeshift chapel on a farm. It’s intense, claustrophobic and the ecstatic congregation seems so real, you’d think that you’re watching a documentary. A teenage girl, the Reverend’s daughter Leni (Almundena González), is hidden in a separate room, watching through a gap in the wooden slats that form the wall.
The small crowd of worshippers reach fever pitch, and the pastor really puts in a performance. “How was I?” he asks Leni afterwards.
With no direction home, the missionary father and daughter live a basic existence travelling across small towns to spread the word. While Leni later reveals her belief in his work, she is clearly unhappy, finding solace listening to pop music that she hides from her father, who she seems to both love and resent.
Filmed on location in Argentina and Uruguay, the film looks set to be a road movie, but the trip gets stalled when the Reverend and Leni’s car breaks down. The journey may have halted but the narrative has not, with the Reverend and Leni finding themselves at the home garage of a mechanic called El Gringo (Sergi López) and his son Tapioca (Joaquín Acebo). El Gringo is taciturn, with something volatile simmering under his facade; his son, who was born with a facial difference, is troubled. Reverend Pearson wants to save Tapioca’s soul – and the two fathers are set to clash.
Expertly helmed and co-written by Paula Hernández, this film consistently holds your attention as it veers from big, fiery dramatic moments to subtle but highly effective scenes, such as when Leni is listening to music on her Walkman, dancing in a field to a soundtrack playing in her head, which the audience doesn’t hear. By turning the sound off for the viewer, Hernández draws you into Leni’s inner world.
A Ravaging Wind has a striking sense of place and an unsettling air. Powered by flawless performances, it’s a gritty, ultimately uplifting coming-of-age fable.
