Light Falls Vertical

When filmmaker Efthymia Zymvragaki fled her native island of Crete as a young adult, she hoped to leave her violent childhood behind her. But in Spain, her memories are reawakened when a man asks her to make a film about him and his violence.

The encounters with Ernesto and his alter ego Juan, the candid conversations about the violent acts he has committed and the scenes in which he or actors reenact parts of his autobiography offer unprecedented insight into the nature of a perpetrator—in this case, one who is painfully self-aware. At the same time, the filmmaker relives her own past.

The calm, almost whispered commentary and the poetic, cinematic shots of sun-drenched landscapes, details of flowers and the sea—in which Zymvragaki’s father was eventually to die—leave room for your own contemplations. As well as the impact and causes of violence, the film also deals with identity and the longing for a home.

Nominated for IDFA Award for Best First Feature