REVIEWED - BATTLE IN HEAVEN/BATALLA EN EL CIELO: CARLOS Reygadas, the young Mexican director of 2002's stubbornly unpacy Japón, makes a point of declaring his lack of interest in such mainstream cinematic concerns as excitement, tension and narrative drive.
Yet Battle in Heaven, which even its detractors must admit is a singular piece of work, has a strong plot and a surprisingly moral denouement. Only a lunatic would describe the film as populist, but it is, nonetheless, far from inaccessible.
Utilising a fascinating sound design, whose blasts and rumbles engender unease throughout, Reygadas - though he may not enjoy hearing it - here demonstrates hitherto unsuspected talents as a teller of tales.
Sadly he still feels the need to be something of a shock monkey. Japón featured a scene in which the protagonist had sex with a very elderly woman. Battle in Heaven begins and ends, for no real reason, with an overweight, middle-aged man being fellated by a young woman.
The man works as a driver for the girl's father, and has recently got himself into serious trouble. He and his equally unpulchritudinous wife - the couple are inevitably later shown humping wheezily - have kidnapped a neighbour's child, who subsequently dies. The picture details the couple's contrasting attempts at dealing with the tragedy. Ana (Anapola Mushkadiz) slips back into the rituals of daily life. Marcos (Marcos Hernández) drifts through madness towards a very traditional Christianity.
Though Battle in Heaven does indeed have a coherent shape, it is still most memorable for individual bursts of virtuoso film-making: the devotion of pilgrims balanced against that of football fans; a hypnotic 360-degree pan about an urban locale; an insistently noisy military parade.
Reygadas draws mournfully sad performances from people who look as if they might actually know what suffering is. If he could just restrain his enthusiasm for cheap jolts - sorry, why exactly is that bloke masturbating while watching football on television? - he might develop into one of the great humanist film-makers.
