Aita

FATHERAn old empty house. The guard who takes care of it. The priest of the town. Spaces, sounds, lights and shadows. Time goes by and the memories are shown in the walls and in the most hidden nooks. "Set wholly in or within the grounds of a rambling, semi-derelict old mansion outside San Sebastian, this calm, measured, visually very beautiful blend of documentary, fiction and archive footage bears some resemblance to Tsai Ming-liang’s 'Goodbye Dragon Inn' and Jose Luis Guerín’s ‘Train of Shadows’, but is amply rewarding in its own right. It takes a while to find out who the various people visiting and working in the house are, and as long to learn about the building itself, but a series of brief, often pawkily amusing conversations between two of the men comes slowly to focus on themes related to death, faith and the possibility of ongoing life: certainly the house, thanks to cinema, is alive with the ghosts of Basque history. Experimental but very accessible and humane, and quietly affecting." Time Out Online