Program Review at BAFICI

This is an introductory review of Mirror written by Eduardo Antin (aka Quintin), the director of the Buenos Aires Film Festival for their program book. Mirror was included in the official competition section of the program.

Up until now, it was common knowledge that Canadian cinema could come from Toronto, Quebec, sometimes from Winnipeg or Vancouver. Mirror comes from Alberta, a province of oil wells, woods, mountains and hockey players. The appearance of a primitive voice in the excessive ambient neatness (not Canadian alone) is very healthy.A chronic student gets a job as a filling station attendant in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a bunch of characters that life turned into a mess. What starts as a story of learning with comic overtones turns into a curious meditation into the pros and cons of civilization. This exploration is so incisive that the film ends up questioning itself; shot on a shoestring with home resources, which deos not prevent a feeling of freshness and irreverence and, above all, of truth from illuminating the screen and surprisingly because of its novelty as few films manage.