[xrr rating=4/5]

En Tu Ausencia ( In your absence ) is a movie I have heard a lot about before getting a change to get a hold on the DVD and watch it for myself. I have heard all kinds of rumors about it -- being the ultimate coming of age movie , powerful tale ,provocative scenes…etc. At the end when I saw it I was mostly impressed with the nature shots and felt a bit disappointed .  The whole movie feels more like a reportage than a film in itself -- either that or a documentary. Add the surrealism and beautiful visuals and you have a perfect arty festival film- which however won`t be understood by everyone and don`t really have a chance for a commercial success .

As I am writing this review I am pausing and watching the directors commentary -- its quite comprehensive in fact -  over 1 hour and 40 minutes meaning that virtually the whole movie is commented by Ivan Noel. Some of the interesting things he mentions were that the movie was shot with  ” No budgets , no production help -- nothing ” , it had only 2 professional actors in the cast and more over no make up was used at any moment of filming . A film which main idea was ” Covering the grounds of that transition between a childhood and adolescence ” .  As a rite of passage movie En Tu Ausensia did pretty well -- even trough I admit that I started to believe more in that after watching it once again with the directors comments -- in fact the DVD is worth having just for them . My impression is that Ivan Noel would do a wonderful job directing short movies on the topic and does seem to have a pretty intriguing and truthful views   . ( I have checked some other things written by him online in addition to the film itself )

The movie had several scenes ( nudity mostly -- nothing that weird for Spanish movie anyway ) that made my mom who was watching it with me shrug her arms. I guess she was thinking that the plot was going in a certain direction -- while in fact the story evolved in quite an interesting manner. Definitely there were few  seduction scenes if I may say that -- but noting that goes overboard or too different that what happens in the real life anyway ( I myself felt quite as Pablo did kissing my first girlfriend -- and I am sure many of you share similar experiences )

Of course Ivan Noel talked a lot about the music used in the film -- written and performed by himself and Gonzalo Sánchez Salas ( or Pablo in the film ) . He mentioned that Gonzalo expressed interest in the guitar in the filming process and learned incredible fast -- so he accompanies Ivan in recording some of the vibes .  While I am on the sound  I should mention that I had a bit of trouble following the dialogues in the film -- I think most were pretty silent -- and while I am not a native speaker of Spanish I watched the film with one and he had troubles with that too. If the idea was to make it sound like an overheard conversation that definitely that was achieved as I had to really pay attention to get some of the dialogues .

Overall is the movie worth seeing -- my answer is yes , will it appear to everyone -- I doubt -- but many movie`s dont. Will I will foreward for another movie of the director -- definitely ! Go figure …

Official movie site

Ivan Noel is currently working on another feature movie called Brecha -- more info

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