The Sky Turns (2004) User Reviews

Gorgeous, if ambiguous, documentary about rural life

[lancekoz · 8/10 · 30 March 2008]

This film is perhaps a little weak in conclusions or opinions, unlike many documentaries that set out to make a persuasive or political point. Instead, it reminds me of evidential films made by cultural anthropologists. It presents a stirringly beautiful slice of lifestyle that is disappearing from the developed world, showing elderly people who maintain joys, comfort, and wisdom in spite of poverty and a lack of modern education. Regardless of what you expect or read into it, however, the filming is stunningly beautiful at times. The photographer used natural light to great effect in saturated, well-composed video. Also, there was an engaging tendency to keep the camera rock still during long shots, while characters moved through the space. It was very refreshing to watch these stable, gorgeous environments with calm people occupying them; a stark contrast to the modern, jittery, hand-held style, and almost a remedy for a jittery, modern lifestyle. I saw an un-subtitled version and know little Spanish, but found it very enjoyable anyway, just enjoying the visual aspects.

villagers deep philosophers

[ngonzalez · 8 February 2005]

Such a fine sense of humor and at the same time an intimate sad view of the deep feelings the disappearance of a small village produces in us. The quality of the filming done in video recording due to low budget cannot show in its full extent the beauty of the emptiness. The non-actors are the villagers themselves, none of them younger than sixty and with a magnificent sense of life and charm besides the situation. No one could have gone deeper in their feelings and transmit such a peaceful sensation at the end. First feature film of a promising Spanish female director who happens to have been born in the village where the film is shot

Great documentary

[reina-carmona · 9/10 · 16 June 2005]

It is one of the best documentaries I ever saw. Intelligent and beautiful cinematographic work, full of connotations on how modern life affects small villages that stand still once all the young people leave for the big cities. It also gives a very humorous look at political parties and the way they act in rural villages.

The village is situated in a boring landscape, but the director manages to transform that background into one of the most poetic places in the world. Thanks to changes of light and landscape through the four seasons.

The whole history of Spain, in particular of that region, is shown from a very shrewd and wise perspective. From the siege of the Romans in Numancia (a place nearby in the province of Soria where their people committed suicide before the Romans came in) to the present immigration of Arabs.

The fourteen old people who still live in the village have a very natural and often philosophical way of looking at life.

Putting the present into perspective

[koenjer · 9/10 · 19 April 2005]

What made the film very beautiful, was how it shows in a light-hearted way how futile man is in history. The life of the people in the village is shown to the background of historical remains from different periods, philosophical chatter about the meaning of life, stories about the village in earlier days, the old castle being built into a 5-star hotel, state-of-the-art windmills erected in the neighborhoods and the 2003 American attack on Irak about to start. Beautiful too is the conversation between two Moroccans who immigrated to the region and who notice that it is funny that they live there in the place where their forefathers left their traces 800 years ago (the old castle in the village!) The film leaves one the question if the village with its last generation of inhabitants will undergo the same faith as the village dating from Roman times at the excavation site nearby.

The film is worth watching for the reason above, but you need to be in a patient mood however, because it is not too fast and takes long. If you give the film a chance you will step out feeling relaxed as the villagers in the film do.

A poetic vision and an accurate slice of life.

[oconn001 · 10/10 · 3 May 2008]

I saw this lovely film at the MSPIFF in the Twin Cities. I cannot say how it will be seen by those who do not know rural life in Spain, but this village is very like the one my daughter's grandparents left behind, and it gave me goosebumps because it is such a rich portrait of a place the the relationship of its inhabitants to that place. The film records the seasons of a year, but the conversations of the villagers and others refer to larger cycles of time: when "the palace" used to employ some of the villagers as caretakers, memories of the Civil War, the storied siege by the Romans of the nearby city Numancia, the presence of a series of villages and peoples in the same place over thousands of years. The elderly villagers who are the only ones left living there year round look at the moon the way people have done for millenia; they also talk about the beginning of the Iraq war as they see it unfolding on TV. The director is never condescending to the people she films. Their rhythms of speech, sense of humor, ironic commentary on the young folks who drive into town to put up political posters, all of these remind me so much of the family we have in Teruel. The film is both an important historical document, and an beautifully poetic composition on the subject of memory, place, and voice.

Not as good as I expected

[moniquemathot · 5/10 · 7 February 2005]

I saw this film last week at the IFFR. According to the description it should be a beautiful film about a little Spanish village which is about to disappear because all the young inhabitants have moved to more populated areas. Helas, the film was not as beautiful as I expected. the landscape in which the village lays is absolutely not spectacular, I even found it boring. The (only fourteen) old people who still live in the village are filmed in a disorganized way. And although there is some attention for new developments (windmills being built in the neighborhood and the transformation of a former castle into a luxurious hotel), these are only mentioned and no attention is been given to the consequences of these developments for the village. On top of this all the film lasts almost two hours, which is in my opinion at least half an hour to long for what is being told in it.

Bad directed and bad filmed

[LonelyRoadsOrg · 24 February 2017]

With references and similar style to previous award winning documentaries, looks like that director only imitated them. Poor directed and bad filming. Unnecessary long and filmed in horrible format. This is a work of an amateur director. Incredible, but this movie won in some festivals like Best Movie!.