Ruins Your Realm

Out of its 65 minutes running time, Pablo Escoto’s documentary Ruins, Your Real spends roughly 50mn on a fishing boat following a couple fishermen’s routine in the Gulf of Mexico. There are almost no dialogues and, even though it might feel tedious, you slowly get absorbed, suddenly finding yourself on board almost smelling and feeling the slimy catch of the day, as if you were working along the crew. But just when you thought you were on autopilot, the filmmaker suddenly changes course, the passive documentary turning into experimental work.

One of the strongest moments is undoubtedly when the ship and water are superimposed while an intense rough soundtrack – think Philip Glass’ Quatsi trilogy – breaks the tranquility. This is followed by distorted underwater sequences, making it clear that the superimposed scene was used as transition between two worlds. We are then unexpectedly taken in the jungle for a few minutes, a woman making her way in the luxurious vegetation, before ending our journey back on the ship.

While, on the surface, Mr. Escoto’s film certainly pays homage to fishermen’s hard work, Ruins, Your Real is most importantly an expressive, naturalistic work aiming at making us experience immersion in the physical world, whether it’s on the water, underwater or in the vegetation and it succeeds to the extent it almost becomes claustrophobic. Besides this emotional dimension, I’m suspecting the director might have a message to deliver, my guess being that Humans are just guests of Mother Nature, which sooner or later will take everything back.

As you would expect, this is one of these somewhat challenging works requiring patience before delivering its rewards, a trend that I’ve been witnessing and welcoming in quite a few Latin American productions lately. As a quite nascent art form with modest budgets, Latin American cinema seems to be a rejuvenating source for inventive filmmakers finding inspiration in early to twentieth century European works rather than aseptic blockbusters, and just for this, enduring some of its creative and production challenges is worth the trip.

Watch the Ruins your Realm trailer

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