El cuento (The Story)

A haunting and poetic vision of war and its effects on everyday life, created without images of war. The film’s structure is drawn from road signs found as fragments of a trip, with the quotidian images – of landscapes, city life, children playing, a wedding – collected like a diary in a combination of richly saturated colour and high-contrast black-and-white footage. In contrast to the emotive quality of the imagery and music, the voice-over/text provides a dispassionate and chilling guide on what to expect and how to behave in times of war: “Before proceeding with the burial, it is important to be sure of the identity of the dead one. In the case of dismembered bodies, it is necessary to define with precision, which parts belong to which body.” Beautiful and mournful, “El cuento (The Story)” is a paean to all that is lost with war.