Mark Reviews Movies: BUÑUEL IN THE LABYRINTH OF THE TURTLES

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 5, 2019

By the time Luis Buñuel, the master of cinematic surrealism, would set out to make his third film, he was already notorious. That third film, a documentary (or close enough) about the people of the mountainous and impoverished Las Hurdes region of Spain, would cement him as a controversial figure. Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles is an animated dramatization of the making of that documentary.

Luis (voice of Jorge Usón) gets the idea to make a documentary when Eli Lotar (voices Cyril Corral), a cinematographer, lends him a book on Las Hurdes. His first two films, made in partial collaboration with Salvador Dalí (although the filmmaker regrets that, if only because people question his own role in the process), have led to Luis being branded a communist in Paris and a blasphemer by the Vatican. The funding for the project comes from pure luck: His friend, the poet and anarchist Ramón Acín Aquilué (voice of Fernando Ramos), wins the lottery.

Co-writer/director Salvador Simó once again shows us that any story can be presented via animation. Here, he gives us a rather sly juxtaposition of the animated scenes—the majority of the film and the reality of the story—with actual footage from Buñuel's film—presented as "reality" but, through the behind-the-scenes story, revealed to be often staged by the filmmaker.

Luis has heard stories about goats falling from mountain and donkeys, transporting beehives, being stung to death by their load. When the truth proves to be different, Luis, to the horror of Ramón and Eli (as well as writer Pierre Unik, voiced by Luis Enrique de Tomás), simply shoots a couple of goats and breaks a hive next to a mule.

Simó's intention isn't to condemn the filmmaker. It is to show how Buñuel, still stymied by the insecurities of his youth and trying to maintain his reputation as a rebel, begins to understand that there's more to this world than his art. While being haunted by dreams of his stern father and a personification of death, Luis realizes that he has a message to convey that goes beyond his own ego.

Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles is enlightening as biography and as a behind-the-scenes look at the difficult making of Buñuel's third film. More potently, though, it's a fairly intelligent study of what happens when artistic vision collides with harsh reality.

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