AGGADAH
2013 · 6m · España
Directed by Javier Beltrán
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, provocative, sensual
A young woman is overcome by desire but, because of her upbringing, fears it is a taboo subject. She struggles between what she feels and what she has been taught.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Desire-versus-upbringing is the most well-trodden coming-of-age path imaginable, and Beltrán doesn't seem interested in subverting it—which means this lands as exactly what everyone expects, which is precisely what bores me.
A formally composed meditation on repression and embodiment that locates itself squarely in the lineage of European art cinema; the sensual restraint and contemplative pacing recall a careful study in psychological contradiction.
The film's power lives entirely in the tactile sound design—the way ambient texture and breath become a character unto themselves, turning interior conflict into something you can almost feel on your skin, which is the one choice that makes this abstraction breathe.