For a film about death, Lila Avil茅s鈥� is extraordinarily lived in.
Avil茅s鈥� camera roams through the festive, cluttered gathering of an extended family as they prepare for a birthday celebration that evening. Watching it all is the 7-year-old Sol (Na铆ma Sent铆es), whose father, Tonatiuh or 鈥淭ona鈥� (Mateo Garcia), is to be feted.
The scenes are familiar, unfolding with a natural, warm disorder. Tona鈥檚 sisters are there. Alejandra (Marisol Gas茅) is working in the kitchen and dyeing her hair. Nuri (Montserrat Mara帽贸n) is making a cake while her own daughter, Ester (Saori Gurza), lurks about. There鈥檚 bickering and laughter.
But humdrum as all of this is, colossal and devastating happenings are at work in 鈥淭贸tem.鈥� When we sporadically spy Tona, who stays in his bedroom for much of the film, he鈥檚 weak and strikingly gaunt, debilitated by cancer. In the film鈥檚 opening moments, Sol is riding in her mother鈥檚 (Iazua Larios) car. While passing beneath a bridge, they hold their breath and make a wish.
鈥淪hould I tell you what it was?鈥� Sol says after emerging from the darkness. 鈥淚 wished for Daddy not to die.鈥�
With that, the film鈥檚 title credit appears, allowing you a quick moment to pick your heart off the floor and steel yourself for whatever is to come.
That name, Sol, is a hint. Planets are in motion. Young Sol spends much of 鈥淭贸迟别尘鈥� spying on another world, the adult world, a place buzzing with activity that seems strangely, perhaps, distracted from the crushing calamity right down the hall.
Everyone around Sol seems intent on shielding her from it. Her family鈥檚 interactions aren鈥檛 in any way cruel, but they鈥檙e trying to put a happy face on it. For the party, Sol is dressed in a clown wig and nose. She wants to see her dad, but she鈥檚 told repeatedly that she can鈥檛. He鈥檚 resting.
Are they protecting her or distracting her? Either way, in this impeccably observed, achingly soulful film, Sol sees through it. She鈥檚 too perceptive. Though 鈥淭贸迟别尘鈥� sometimes drifts to other perspectives, it stays closest to Sol. The movie resides in her watchful eyes, and the dawning dread welling up behind them. A world, for Sol, is being eclipsed.
鈥淭贸tem,鈥� which was and begins its theatrical release Friday, more than confirms the talent flashed by Avil茅s in her 2018 debut 鈥淭he Chambermaid.鈥� The year is young, but you鈥檙e unlikely to see a film as richly textured as Avil茅s鈥� masterful child鈥檚-eye view of death and family.
Part of the film鈥檚 power is in how organically the movie unfolds, free of sentimentality or overemphasis. Cinematographer Diego Tenorio shifts room to room and character to character, as if visiting interplanetary bodies in constant orbit around each other. Sometimes, they can feel genuinely alien. The grave-faced grandfather Roberto (Alberto Amador), who tends to bonsai trees, speaks through a device that renders his halting speech robotic.
But this is, most assuredly, Earth we鈥檙e on. In the home where the family has gathered, Avil茅s occasionally turns her focus toward not just each character but some of the insect life that makes its way through the house. Tona may die, but life won鈥檛 stop moving. In the face of that cold truth, wishes and spirituality have scant usefulness. A psychic is brought in to cleanse the space, with comical results.
And it鈥檚 that profoundly melancholy perspective on the constant churn of life that so distinguishes 鈥淭贸tem.鈥� Sol is resistant. When the party starts and friends and family have gathered in the garden outside, she solitarily sits on the roof, contemptuously looking down at them.
Later, when they move inside for a kind of talent show to cheer Tona, Sol dresses up, sitting on her mother's shoulders while a cape hides her mom. Sol, lip-syncing opera, stands tall and performs like an adult beyond her years. Before they begin, her mother opens and closes the cape like a magic act.
鈥淣ow there鈥檚 two of us," she says. "Now just one.鈥�
"T贸tem,鈥� a Sideshow and Janus Films release, is unrated by the Motion Picture Association. In Spanish with English subtitles. Running time: 95 minutes. Four stars out of four.
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Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
