Film Review: 3/105

This deceptively simple film – recently premiered in competition at the 2014 Venice Film Festival - plays with the relationship with sound and image in a way reminiscent of the work of British experimental filmmaker John Smith – albeit with a serious edge and without Smith’s attendant sense of humour.

Over visuals of a raging river, a paternal voice reads an autopsy report – case 3/105. As the visuals continue of the maelstrom of the current, the voice recounts the circumstances of death. Soon the autopsy report gives way to a letter speaking of loneliness and alienation. As the shot of the river zooms in closer to the swirling water, a voice-message asks for the whereabouts of a friend and then we return to the grim intonations of the autopsy report.

This is very much a movie that makes the audience fill in the gaps, with the information we’re given pointing to a lonely person unable to cope with her surroundings and taking the only way out she sees possible. There is a poignancy and earnestness at work throughout the film while the single take of the river starts to take on something of a hypnotic quality. The film’s simple nature is something that adds to its sad charm and it creates something of a truly affecting work.

Despite some familiar stylistic touches, the film should prove a popular selection at festivals especially for those looking for something that straddles the boundaries between experimental work and narrative.

Title: 3/105

Directors: Avelina Prat & Diego Opazo

Year: 2014

Run time: 6'

Country: Spain

Contact: Avelina Prat, avelinaprat@yahoo.es