MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: Two depressed ghosts in the midst of an existential crisis embark on a transformative cross-country pilgrimage in Sergio Caballero’s offbeat Finisterrae, a goofy surrealist fairytale that might only be bettered by The Seventh Seal being realised by Monty Python.
Desperate to escape the nullifying boredom of limbo, two Otherworld-weary apparitions take the 'Way of St James’ (el Camino de Santagio) Christian pilgrimage route through north-west Spain, to make the transition to earthly form at Finisterre ('the end of the world’). The journey through the misty, wind-blown capes presents a series of metaphysical challenges for the unsuspecting roadtrippers.
Artfully droll, this low-fi supernatural saga (the two main characters sport white bedsheets with black eyesockets) is the brainchild of the co-director of Spain’s multimedia festival Sonar. Musician/artist Caballero’s experimental method involved shooting the visuals well in advance of writing the story and recording the dialogue. He collaborated with versatile cinematographer Eduard Grau, whose past efforts include saturating the screen with the sumptuous period detail of Tom Ford’s A Single Man, and getting surprising coverage – for a film set entirely within the claustrophobic confines of a coffin, lit by a mobile phone screen – in Rodrigo Cortes’ Buried. Here, Grau’s lensing evokes a medieval mood, as the gloomy ghosts set out on their spiritual pilgrimage across an inhospitable landscape with only a stripey windsock as their guide.
Dialogue twixt the two travellers is clipped, ironic and kept to a minimum, and the Catalan production is voiced by a 'worthy’ Russian narrator, to reinforce the absolute detachment between sound and vision.
Easily one of the highlights of this year’s MIFF, Finisterrae offers comic and emotional dividends for the patient festivalgoer. The perplexing opening is followed by yet more opportunities for confusion and bamboozlement, but there’s enough finesse and nudge-nudge irony to keep a lid on phony pretension. In keeping with the perseverance displayed by the spectres on screen, Finisterrae culminates in an elegant, eloquent metaphor that rewards audience endurance with an unexpectedly affecting whallop.
