Thematically sparse, but visually compelling, The Summer of Flying Fish, the feature debut of Chilean documentarian Marcela Said, world premiered at the Critics Week section of the Cannes Film Fest.
The director may assume that the viewers are familiar with the background of the region and the conflict between native Mapunche population and their white European landowners as she offers few details to anchor her slim story.
Poncho (Gregory Cohen), a wealthy landlord, wants to move to New York, but his rebellious teenage daughter, Manena (Francisca Walker), who is American, does not.
In some moments, the film is ethnographic (centering on the geographic landscape), in others it’s a tale of social class conflict, but the narrative (such as it is) is underdeveloped and the characters lack specific definition, leaving the audience in an unsatisfyingly vague state of mind.
Official title: Los Perros
