South follows a girl growing up in the 1950s in the north of Spain. She dreams of the mysteries of the Spanish south that are somehow connected with her father, a man she both adores and knows very little about. Much like Erice’s debut feature, South is primarily a lyrical chronicle of growing up and coming to terms with alien adult life. Using only natural light, Erice evokes a dense atmosphere of both naturalism and dreaminess, serving to reflect the girl’s shifting perception of her father. South could also be seen as a very special reworking of Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, another story of a gradual demystification of a beloved, charismatic character. But instead of crime, nothing less than life in all its unbearable mundaneness happens in South.
Print courtesy of Filmoteca Española.