Valley of Souls

Actor Arley de Jesús Carvallido Lobo is onscreen for almost all of Valley of Souls, and he is unforgettable. He plays José, a fisherman whose two sons are abducted by paramilitaries. With little fuss or ceremony and almost certain knowledge that they aren’t alive, he travels downriver in search of their bodies. His journey – an odyssey in every sense of the word – puts him in contact with a range of humanity from the helpful to the barbaric. Very little in Gille’s powerful film is rendered with words, but the weight of Colombia’s civil conflict is captured by the visual poetry of the camera’s eye.

“DP Juan Sarmiento G.’s miraculously unobtrusive camera seems to erase itself from the process altogether, while Edson Secco’s scoreless sound design envelopes us in the unfolding moment. And so few words are spoken that the screenplay has all but evaporated too, and all there is, is José’s mission, etched into his weather-sculpted face, his fathomless black eyes, and the sinews of his tanned shoulders.” –Jessica Kiang, Variety