Pau and His Brother

Pau and his mother leave Barcelona for a Pyrenean village where his brother, who's unexpectedly committed suicide, had been living for some years; there they meet his lover and friends, and in so doing discover more about him, themselves and each other. A quiet, gentle, contemplative film, it lacks focus, so that it's often hard to know how the characters are related to each other, let alone to take any great interest in their emotional or psychological predicament. The film's strength lies in the sure sense of time, weather and place: seldom have the distinctive light, hues, shapes and sounds of the Pyrenees been conveyed so authentically.