Death Will Come and Shall Have Your Eyes
- Director: José Luis Torres Leiva
- Writer: José Luis Torres Leiva
CGiii Comment
The great leveler...Death. It comes to us all.
This is - truly - an agonising watch. Not just because of the subject matter...a woman with terminal cancer refuses any further treatment...she has reached her enough-is-enough. Her wife has to grin and bear her decision. When someone makes such a mighty decision as this, to disagree with it is akin to shouting at clouds...it's pointless, it's worthless...and, a little selfish. But...every minute together counts.
This is not one of those bucket list finales. This is like reading the final chapter of a tragic book, José Luis Torres Leiva - quite literally - gives these ladies neither background nor backstory. Leaving you to guess [or, colourfully imagine] the series of events that led to where these ladies are now. That - indeed - is a very big ask.
The success of the film really does rely on your own state of mind...some will - indeed - find it too slow and excessively morose. Others will be able to relate and contemplate...to and over this finality. It is a difficult and paradoxical film...you see, there really is nothing difficult about death, it happens...regardless.
Definitely...a film that supplies much food for existential thought.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Ana (Amparo Noguera) and María (Julieta Figueroa) have been a couple for two decades. They are first seen with their heads together, almost as one. Ana is a senior nurse in a hospital, María a mathematics teacher. María has terminal cancer, but has refused further treatment. The couple leave their home for a cabin in the countryside, where María’s storytelling – two tales that ‘come alive’ before the viewer – offers reflections on love, desire and the power of narrative. Rooted in two breathtaking performances of Bergmanesque intensity and imbued with a sense of mystery that is maintained to the end, this is a film of rare beauty where the emotional lives of its protagonists resonate across the broader environmental canvas of post-Pinochet Chile.
Maria Delgado
Cast & Characters
Julieta Figueroa as Maria;
Amparo Noguera as Ana