There’s good news, really good news and of course some bad news. The good news is that my pick for best director of 2008, Carlos Reygadas, director of Silent Light (Rot’s review) was commissioned by Rotterdam International Film Festival to make a film for their Urban Screens program. The really good news then, is that the film is already complete(!) and screened at Rotterdam to fairly high praise.

The film, Serenghetti, is an 80-minute, moving montage of views of a women’s amateur soccer match that apparently captures all of the elements of a professional sports game on television but with the use of Reygadas’ very special cinematic vision. A bit of the synopsis from the Rotterdam Film Fest is as follows:

The game between two women’s elevens takes place on a pitch in the middle of a surrealistic mountain landscape where corrosion has done its job. The game has all elements of a professional match as these are generally seen on TV: colourful club kits, camera recording from all possible angles, statistics, the score, slow motion repeats, a preview, interviews with the players etc. A greater contrast between the daunting mountain landscape and the clean urban façade on which this is screened is almost inconceivable. Add to that the mixture of two almost incompatible worlds – that of commercial football broadcasts on TV and the artistic cinema of Reygadas – and a special viewing experience is born.

A “special viewing experience” indeed! As I mentioned, there is some bad news here; and that is that it’s doubtful any of will get to see this any time soon. Since the film was a special commission for Rotterdam and it isn’t even listed on the IMDb, it could take years (if ever) for it to see any sort of national release. I can tell you though, that I’ll be watching this one very closely and looking for any inkling of a screening. If you haven’t caught Reygadas’ earlier works (Silent Light, Japón, Battle in Heaven), get to it now.

[thanks!]