Costa da Morte, 2013.
Directed by Lois Patino.
SYNOPSIS:
A documentary about Spain’s ‘Coast of Death’.
In director Lois Patino’s debut documentary feature, Spain’s infamous Costa da Morte – ‘the Coast of Death’ – comes under scrutiny. Telling of the area’s history and myth through a panoply of long shots, Patino’s method of observation manages to be both visually sumptuous and ultimately, surprisingly probing of the local characters. Fundamentally, though, Costa da Morte has more to say about man’s place in the world, with an emphasis on our relative insignificance. It’s not a thought that leaves you cold – rather, you gaze in astonishment at Patino’s film.
There are no close-ups or medium shots in Patino’s film – the director’s long shots and extreme long shots spy at a distance. Sometimes the camera seems close to a mile away from the action, the human figures in the landscape more closely resembling ants in a colony. It’s through this that we observe human behaviour in a new way – whereas Patino’s dazzling short, Mountain in Shadow, reduced people to miniature for largely aesthetic purposes, Costa da Morte uses the style to put a spotlight on our relationship with our environment.
Amidst the violent shots inserted sporadically – of burning cars, forest fires and even dead bodies floating in Costa da Morte’s waters, justifying the area’s name – people are depicted as a collective, collecting shells together in a shallow sea, sailing together and dousing virulent forest fires. Costa da Morte’s locals are made to appear insignificant against the huge backdrops, but they are both victim to Mother Nature’s awesome might and wanton destroyers of it.
The film’s opening shot depicts loggers taking chainsaws to trees stood proudly in a dense fog, but then we hear tales of ships being lured to their destruction here over the years, their hulls punctured by the coastline rock. It seems mankind is at war with this place – ‘the Coast of Death’ takes lives and, at the same time, its inhabitants slowly ravage the area. Industry rages, with great machines taking Costa da Morte’s natural minerals and grinding them into dust; dead logs are deposited on great vessels and despatched to the rest of the world.
A film reliant on its wonderful cinematography, one apparently year-spanning series of shots of one of the area’s lakes takes place for perhaps no other reason than to show how visually striking our changing seasons can be. It’s in itself a sequence stating a simple, ferocious fact of life: time will indeed pass, and when man is no more, the Earth will continue its death/renewal pattern regardless. This sequence and indeed the whole movie could exist for the simple reason of showing off the simultaneous beauty and brutality of this world.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Brogan Morris – Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the young princes. Follow Brogan on Twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion.
Originally published April 10, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
