THE ECHO

The children of the remote mountain community of El Eco, in the mountain country of Puebla state, Mexico, are used to getting their hands dirty. Not just in play, although the mud-pits and sheep pastures are the backdrop to endless games of imagination, but a child’s life in El Eco is intense and visceral: kids are involved from the outset in the muck and sweat of animal husbandry; they have a front-row seat to both the births and the deaths in the community.

“The Echo” takes as its principal protagonist a teenage girl, Montse, prematurely aged by the rigors and responsibilities of a life on the land and considering a life different from that of her parents and ancestors. Through Montse and the other children of the village the film discovers the unique ties that bind farming families, where everyone’s welfare hangs on the same unkind elements.

Tatiana Huezo reunites with longterm collaborator and personal partner cinematographer Ernesto Pardo, and the patient, watchful presence of his camera is integral to the raw lyricism of a project that alternates between on-the-fly spontaneity of movement and studied compositions of lighting and colour.

After the film, we will have a conversation with Oslo-based Argentinian director Mirko Stopar on hybrid films and reality in documentary films.