Mexico is one of the hottest filmmaking countries at the moment, and this internationally acclaimed work does its bit to enhance that reputation. The Violin is a poetic and slow-burning film, and garnered a Best Actor award at the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes in 2006 for 81-year-old non-actor Angel Tavira. Tavira was the subject of a documentary by Vargas, an actual violinist who lost his hand when he was thirteen, and offers a wonderfully moving performance as a violinist (Don Plutarco) who sells his art to the occupying military force in order to allow Plutarco to smuggle weapons to guerilla forces behind the military’s back.

The film is set during the peasant revolts in the 1970s, and deals with a brutal period of repression in Mexico’s history. Three generations of the Plutarco family are affected when the government move in, and each of the three are forced to act in different ways. Tavira, as the elderly head, is magnificent, his downcast and impassive face hiding his revolutionary streak.

This is a stark storyline filmed in equally stark black and white. The images are highly formally constructed – there’s a wonderful use of space and framing. There is an expressionist (though unobtrusive) quality to the images, and a careful editing pattern. This consequently has the effect of slowing the narrative down considerably – the narrative doesn’t build up tension as well as its story should do, until the latter third of the film. This also means the narrative unfolds slowly. However, this isn’t necessarily a flaw as the striking visuals have their own tension and drama. This is certainly a promising debut, and I daresay Francisco Vargas is going to be making a name for himself on the international film circuit.—Brannavan Gnanalingam