Mexican Carlos Reygadas has always been a director you either love or hate, and it is pretty certain that this weird collection of vignettes will underline the general curiosity as to why the film managed to win the Best Director prize at Cannes last year. But it did, and Reygadas has been saying “So there!” loudly ever since.
Those who remember the extraordinary Japon and Silent Light will find Post Tenebras Lux even more of a puzzle.
There’s a beautiful sequence of a little girl caught in a field full of dogs and cattle during a storm, an absurd scene in a brothel where a woman who can’t get an orgasm finds sudden satisfaction, and a schoolboy rugby match to savour.
Between all this, Reygadas sandwiches a vague story of a family newly arrived from town into the rural countryside (apparently his own). There is also a Pink Panther-like red devil smooching around. This often brilliant director is defiantly playing private games with us, whether we like it or not.
