Año Uña

There have been movies before consisting entirely of still photographs (most notably, of course, Chris Marker’s ‘La Jetée’), but they’ve been docu-essays or artists’ films. Writer-director Jonás (son of Alfonso) Cuarón’s progressively seductive tale is about the unorthodox relationship between a young American exchange student (Eireann Harper) studying in Mexico and the pubescent Diego (Diego Cataño) who lives in the guesthouse she decides to rent.

You might call it an emergent fiction on two grounds: Cuarón had shot a year’s worth of black-and-white stills before he reformulated the drama and re-called the principals to record voiceovers. Equally, the demands this makes on the audience require a gradual, forensic engagement with what they are seeing and hearing. It’s a tribute to Cuarón’s control over his material, however, that the major enjoyment of the film comes not from the experiment but its gentle meditations on belonging, loneliness, family, love and the nature of cultural, sexual and emotional boundaries. In addition, curiously, it’s beautifully acted.