‘Balearic Islands’: the unbearable experimentation of a few green dogs | Cinema: premieres and reviews

Every cinematography and every era has its own artistic green dogs, and in contemporary Spain, fortunately, there are a few. These are directors who do not comply with the conventions of the market, commerciality, exhibition, interpretations, history itself and even certain festivals. They operate on the margins and, consciously, they play on it, feeling comfortable in their condition of foreigners. In our country, we must mention, among others, the names of Ion de Sosa, Chema García Ibarra, Julián Génisson and the Burnin’ Percebes. What is incredible is that in Balearic Islands They all came together. An awkward conjunction of looks, sensitivities, provocations and styles which nevertheless ends on the verge of disaster. The film is unbearable.

Experimental is the best that can be said Balearics. And it’s true. Because the term avant-garde is too big for him, and it’s not clear that he intends to be. The idea is to break all the codes, and it’s magnificent and courageous, even if the intention never achieves anything: neither artistically nor disruptive. Balearic Islands This could (in fact, should) be a movie about anger and fighting. However, this is simply insane. Telling what it is about is impossible and would also be an insult, but let’s say that in its first part it plays with the rules of juvenile horror to transgress them. And in the second, there is supposed to be a reflection on class conflicts and the generational identity crisis. Always through a languorous and liquid aesthetic – water functions as a central element in both stories – accompanied by electronic and enveloping music which surrounds the dialogues of the shame of others.

Among teenagers, it is not clear whether they want to be parodic, everyday or relentlessly critical of boys, through this series of chic conversations full of “please”, “aunt”, “well” and even a few Catalanism (“they can (sic) there are cameras”). With a few “shots” the fish would already be sold. Meanwhile, in the adult part the adults play at being interesting with considerable pedantry. All this with interpretations which perhaps want to hide behind the adjective distant, but which are only amateurs.

This reviewer’s opinion on the previous work in short and feature format by those involved is diverse. De Sosa, behind the camera Balearics, He is a unique cinematographer who always gives a special touch to his work; one of the last, that of the highly awarded short film A Midsummer Night’s Tale by María Herrera, is fantastic. However, as a director of plays concerned with breaking genres (Dream of Androids, Mamantula) This is much more debatable. In the group of co-writers, Julián Génisson was one of the three filmmakers at the helm of the prodigiously absurd film This feeling (2016), the story of a woman in love with a roundabout. Chema García Ibarra, the best of them all, has at least two sensational short films (Nebula-5 Robot Attack and The Disco Shines), and a long model in its arbitrary liberation of the imagination (Holy Spirit). Finally, The fantastic case of the Golem, film signed by the Burnin’ Barnacles, was as dull, dull and futile as this one Balearics.

Conceptual, surreal, without story or character development, and with a direction by De Sosa that flees the academic and the classic to embrace something different and much uglier, the film also relies on fragments close to video creation, which challenge the viewer with their textures and their elusive symbolism. At least it lasts an hour and 10 minutes: it couldn’t last longer. How necessary and important are films that escape the ordinary. But it’s not the same.