La sombra

Even when it carries a hint of irony and another one of undeniable bitterness, the CITIZEN KANE quote Javier Olivera slips in LA SOMBRA is not gratuitous. His own story, the story of his father as a young cinema tycoon in Argentina, the story of the northern suburb mansion where his family lived an idyllic life that was recorded in fine Super-8, is a kind of Xanadú that got wiped out by a tsunami. But that devastating force of nature didn’t take away only the family mansion, but also their family life.
Olivera is brave enough to face the remains (in this case, literally: the house was first emptied and then demolished) of a glorious past, but he also builds a present that is made of fragments, rumble, forgotten tapes, and unspoken words. THE SHADOW is a brave and beautiful film, made with the knowledge that none of this can put the myth back in its place. (Mark Peranson)