Set during the end of the Chaco War (1932-1935) between Bolivia and Paraguay, this pseudodocumentary is spoken completely in Guaraní with Spanish subtitles. Composed of a series of fixed shots and voice-over dialogue, the film shows a day in the life of Ramón (Ramón del Río) and Cándida (Georgina Genes), an elderly couple waiting for their son to return from the battlefield. The circular dialogues reproduce the minutiae, complaints and daily disagreements of this couple whose tedious existence—under unbearable heat and a cloudy sky that refuses to break into rain—seems to rest on the question of whether their son Máximo (Jorge López) is dead or alive. While Ramón clings to the hope that their son will return home soon, Cándida is fraught with negative premonitions that resonate with the disconcerting barking of the dog Máximo left behind. The dialogue jumps back in time when we hear the son bidding farewell to each of his parents. When we hear the voice of a messenger with news from the front, a confusion over names only multiplies the doubt surrounding Máximo’s fate. When at last it grows dark in the final scene, we hear the sound of rain drops hitting the earth.

Vera R. Coleman

Arizona State University